


A Little Problem

by Vanshira



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Babysitting, Child, Child Death, Friendship, Return to Childhood, Temporary Death, child character, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-04
Updated: 2007-12-15
Packaged: 2019-10-21 01:41:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17633681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vanshira/pseuds/Vanshira
Summary: Oh, dear. The strange world Demyx was sent to had a delayed effect, and now Axel better polish his childcare skills...





	1. Part 1

"So, you're finally back - how'd it go?"

Demyx sighed and shuddered a little. "That - was an extremely weird world."

Axel blinked. "When you say weird, you mean - "

"I have no idea how to explain it. Just - something - about it - it was like it was put together all wrong, somehow." Demyx shuddered again. "I'm very glad I got that mission over and done with, and I'm very glad I'm out of there, and I never want to go back."

"It wasn't one of those worlds that - changes your appearance or something, was it?"

"No...at least it didn't do that. But it was honestly  _weird._ " Demyx brushed himself off almost unconsciously, as if he was afraid some essence of that world was clinging to him still.

Axel looked warily at him. "It's definitely got you freaked out. And you can't explain what was so weird about it?"

"No...you'd just better hope you never get sent there. I'm going to bed - maybe I'll feel better tomorrow."

"Good night, then." After Demyx left, Axel started to feel a tiny bit anxious for no good reason, as if Demyx really had brushed off some essence of weirdness and he'd gotten some on him.

* * *

Axel had better reason to be anxious the next morning, when he'd yet to see or hear a trace of Demyx by breakfast. They lived right next door to each other, and Demyx's room was almost never silent as long as he was in it and awake.  _Maybe he's just sleeping way late. Maybe he's sick...or maybe that weird world he got sent to yesterday had a delayed effect._  After breakfast, he tried to get into Demyx's room the usual way, but both his hallway door and his bathroom door were locked, and knocking on them had no effect.  _Fuck...I didn't want to have to do this, but if that idiot's not responding any other way..._  Axel sighed and teleported into the dark room.

Sitting on Demyx's bed was a small child in a scaled-down version of the standard Organization robes, hugging a killer whale plushie. The little boy looked up at Axel anxiously. "Hi, Axel."

There was only one explanation for the kid's presence. Just going by the hairstyle alone. "...Demyx?!" The boy nodded. "What the hell happened to you?!"

Demyx shrugged and hugged his killer whale even tighter. "I dunno."

"You don't." Axel got the sense that maybe Demyx's mind had regressed as much as his body had. "Demyx...how old are you?"

"Five." That was about fourteen years short of where Axel thought he should be.

"How do you spell my name?"

"A-X-E-L." Demyx grinned. Well, of course, Axel made sure everybody he met memorized it...

"What's eight divided by two?" Demyx didn't like math and wasn't very good at it, but even he could figure out a simple problem like that in a second. The kid just looked helpless. "Agh..." Axel went and flicked the light switch. He looked back at little Demyx and did a double-take. "Demyx...you look different." Very different; his skin color had suddenly darkened to a few shades lighter than hot chocolate.

Demyx looked down at himself. "No, I don't."

"Try taking your gloves off."

Demyx did so, and examined his hands. "My hands don't look different." Apparently, he wasn't finding anything strange about his skin color. He looked back at Axel. "What's wrong?"

 _Oh, nothing, except you're less than half the size and a quarter the age you should be, not to mention a whole different color..._  "Wait...you don't have hearing aids on. Can you hear me okay?"

"What are hearing aids?"

"Never mind." Axel rubbed his forehead, trying to remember everything Demyx might have ever told him about his Other, Edmy. Half-Indian, with a piebald look - blond hair, blue eyes, brown skin. Well, that about fit his current description. Started learning to play sitar at four, or maybe five - so the kid would know what to do with a sitar, but probably wouldn't be a very good musician yet. Well, if Demyx had suddenly turned into his very young Other...

He put his hand on the boy's throat, gently. "What are you doing?"

"Checking your heartbeat."

Demyx giggled. "I don't have a heartbeat, silly. You need a heart to have a heartbeat."

Axel raised an eyebrow. "And you don't have a heart?" Demyx shook his head emphatically. Well, Axel wasn't finding a pulse, so...

He picked little Demyx up and cradled him comfortably. "Where are we going?" Demyx asked.

"I thought we could go see Roxas, and maybe figure out what to do with you." Axel smiled, so the kid wouldn't get the wrong impression.

Demyx smiled right back. "Okay. I like Roxas."

* * *

Axel knocked on Roxas's door and coughed nervously. "Hey, Roxas...I have a little problem..."

Roxas opened the door and stared at the boy Axel was carrying, who was now humming to himself. "...Okay, he's too old to be Demyx's son, but the resemblance is obvious."

"That's Demyx."

Roxas's jaw dropped. "You have got to be kidding me."

Demyx shook his head. "Hi, Roxas!"

" _Dear, sweet Kingdom Hearts!_ " Demyx flinched and hugged his whale plushie. "What happened to him?!"

"I don't know, but - not so loud," Axel cautioned Roxas. "He really is just a kid."

Roxas shook his head. "That's seriously him, just in miniature? He's not even the right color."

"His Other had dark skin. And, you may notice, he can hear just fine." Demyx nodded. "See?"

"He hasn't...turned back into his Other or something, has he?"

Axel shook his head. "No heart. Besides, he still answers to Demyx." Demyx squirmed a little. "Hey, hold still; I don't wanna drop you by accident or something."

"Sorry." Demyx held still, but he looked unhappy.

Axel was going into protective big-brother mode. "Are you okay? Do you feel sick or something?"

Demyx shook his head and leaned on Axel's shoulder. "Is there something wrong with me?"

"No, no, no, we're just a little...surprised to see you like this."

"What do you mean?" Demyx was looking at him with wide, frightened eyes.

"Well, yesterday you were older than Roxas."

Demyx blinked at him in surprise, then he laughed. "No, I wasn't. You're being silly." Axel tickled his ribs gently, and he laughed even harder.

"You'd be a good father."

Axel looked up at Roxas in surprise. "Huh?"

"Never mind...how much does he still know about what's going on?" Demyx calmed down and listened intently.

"Well, he knows his name and our names, and he knows he's not supposed to have a heart, but he doesn't know how old he's supposed to be, or what color...other than that, I'm not sure."

Demyx looked at his hands, then at Axel and Roxas. A tear trickled down his face. "You mean I'm the wrong color?"

"I didn't say that..."

"But it's true, isn't it? I'm not the same color as you two..."

"That doesn't mean you're the wrong color. You're just a different color. Different doesn't mean wrong, got it memorized?" Demyx nodded and wrapped his arms around Axel's neck, holding his killer whale by the tail.

"Have you taken him to see Vexen yet?"

Axel shook his head. "Never occurred to me, I gotta admit."

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Well, I'd think Vexen would be as good a bet as any, as far as finding out what happened to him goes and maybe getting him back to normal..."

Demyx buried his face in Axel's shoulder. Axel looked at him and sighed.

* * *

The look on Vexen's face when Axel walked into the lab carrying a five-year-old Demyx was worth munny to see. "Eight...you'd better have an excellent explanation."

"I really think I do...you might know this kid. His name's Demyx." The slack-jawed stare was priceless.

"That...that child...is Nine?" Demyx turned his head to look at Vexen and nodded.

"Before you ask, I have no idea what happened to him, and if he does, he can't tell me. Apparently he just woke up like this."

Vexen shook his head, apparently trying to clear it. "Has his mental age changed to match his physical age?"

Axel looked down at Demyx, who was silently hugging his stuffed killer whale and sucking his index finger. "Yes, I'd say it has. He knows his own name, and our names, and apparently he recognizes at least his own number, and he knows he doesn't have a heart, but he doesn't know there's anything...strange about his situation. He thinks he's been this age all along." Demyx squirmed again. "You want me to put you down?"

"Yeah."

"Not in my laboratory. I will not have a small child running amok in here."

"That's a shame, 'cause my arms are getting tired..." Demyx pouted, but held still. "You know, though, he seems to be a pretty well-behaved kid." Demyx looked up at him and grinned.

"Have his powers been affected at all? They may be reduced, or they may have vanished entirely."

"I have no idea; I never thought about that. But..." Axel shifted his grip so he was supporting Demyx with one arm and summoned a little fireball in the other.

"Eight!"

"Just hold on, keep your hair on for a second...so, Demyx, what are you going to do about this fire?"

"Put it out," Demyx said matter-of-factly.

"And how are you going to do that?"

Axel suddenly found himself with a handful of cold water. "Like that."

Axel let the water spill onto the floor. Demyx collected it into a little ball and played with it. "Powers still work."

"His skin color...is there a valid explanation -"

"That's what his Other looked like."

"And I note it seems his hearing has been restored."

Demyx looked up and blinked at Vexen. "Huh?"

"And I note I don't think he knows what you're talking about." Demyx suddenly put the water ball up to his mouth and inhaled. It vanished, but a moment later there were two dark wet spots on his robe, one on either side of his rib cage. "Hey, you're all wet now!"

"Apparently his gills are still functioning," Vexen commented dryly.

"Gills? Man, you are just full of surprises, aren't you, kid..."

Demyx started playing with Axel's hair. "What's that mean?"

"Hey, leave my hair alone, okay?" Demyx put his hands down, looking chastened. "I dunno...I might actually like him better in miniature..."

"Will the Superior?"

"Ooh. Good point. Probably not."

"Why wouldn't the Superior like me?"

"Because he's anal and doesn't like anyone," Axel muttered. Vexen coughed. "It's not that he wouldn't like you, it's just that he'd like you better if you were bigger."

"Why?"

"Because you'd be a better fighter if you were bigger."

Demyx leaned on Axel's shoulder. "Then I don't wanna get bigger. I don't like fighting."

"Well...what do you like to do?"

Demyx brightened up a little. "Play sitar."

"Well, I bet you'll be a better sitar player when you get bigger, too." Demyx smiled and gave Axel a hug.

"Touching...I can see child care won't be as important an issue as it might otherwise be, until he can be restored to his true age. In the meantime, I'd like to conduct a basic physical examination, to establish new baselines and perhaps find hints to his condition that may otherwise have gone unnoticed."

"What's that mean?"

If Vexen had ever known how to talk to a small child, he'd apparently forgotten. Axel picked up the cue. "He wants to take a look at you to make sure you're still healthy."

"Why? What does he mean, my 'condition'? There is something wrong with me, isn't there?" Demyx looked like he might cry again.

"Not wrong, just strange...if you behave, I'll get you some ice cream later, how's that sound?" There's probably never been a child born who wouldn't respond well to that bribe.

* * *

The Castle that Never Was wasn't equipped with a whole lot of booster seats, so Demyx ended up sitting on the kitchen table to eat his ice cream. Enthusiastic as he'd been about the prospect of receiving it earlier, he wasn't very enthusiastic about eating it. "You don't seem to be enjoying that ice cream," Axel commented.

"I'm scared."

Axel finished his own ice cream and burned the stick. "Scared? What are you scared of?"

"There is something wrong with me. I know there is. Everyone talks about me like I'm weird. Even you."

"No, no, no, there's nothing wrong with you, got it memorized? There's just something...weird going on...I don't know how to explain it to you."

"You just don't wanna tell me." Demyx sniffled.

"Demyx, if I could tell you and have you believe it..." Axel thought for a moment. "Come on. Let's go back to your room." They walked there, instead of teleporting, with Demyx clinging to Axel's hand all the way. Axel sat him down on the bed and took a framed picture off the wall. "See this picture?"

Demyx looked closely at it. "Yeah. It's you and Roxas. But you got masks on."

Axel nodded. "Right. And who's the guy in the middle?"

Demyx hesitated. "I dunno," he said softly. "He's got a mask on too."

Axel ducked into the bathroom and got a hand mirror. He held it in front of Demyx. "Does he look familiar?"

Demyx nodded warily. "He looks kinda like me."

"That is you."

Demyx shook his head vehemently. "No he isn't. He's too big. And his skin is...the wrong...color..." He wavered in sudden doubt.

Axel sighed. "Demyx, this is your room, right?" Demyx nodded. "No one else has ever lived here, right?" Demyx nodded again. "Then everything in here must be yours, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, then..." Axel went to the closet and started pulling out adult-sized robes, adult-sized shirts, adult-sized pants, adult-sized boots - Demyx's normal wardrobe, far too large for the child he suddenly was. "I guess this stuff is all yours too."

Demyx shook his head. "It can't be. It's all too big."

Axel wasn't sure if Demyx could still read or not, but he held up one of the shirts and showed him the name written on the inside of the collar in permanent marker: DEMYX.

Demyx still recognized his own name. His eyes widened for a moment, then clouded with tears. Axel picked him up and gave him a comforting hug while he waited for the sobbing child to cry himself out.


	2. Part 2

Axel knocked gingerly on Roxas's door. "Hey, Rox...you available?"

Roxas opened the door warily. "Depends. Available for what?"

"A little intelligent conversation with someone who's past the age of reason and not actively hostile, and maybe a session on the Xbox, if we keep the volume down. Demyx is sleeping."

"Sounds like a deal..." The two of them teleported back to Axel's room, and he fired up his Xbox.

"I think Demyx has finally clued in that he's supposed to be a lot older than he is...though when the penny finally dropped, he started bawling. Eventually cried himself to sleep."

"Well, if he's Demyx, he'll probably be a lot calmer when he wakes up - hey!"

"Hey, Roxas, I don't think we're in PS3 world anymore...now you're on my turf! Yeah, it probably would have helped if I'd had a picture of him where he wasn't wearing a mask."

"What'd you show him, that picture of us from Mardi Gras?...How'd you do that?! Is that supposed to be possible?!"

Axel cackled. "We've spent too long playing on your machine! You're too used to kicking my ass all the time - I deserve a little revenge! Yeah, that is the picture I showed him. It was the only one I could find."

"I swear, you're cheating...did he actually recognize himself or what did you have to do to get it to click? Oh, now that just wasn't fair!"

"Showed him some of his old clothes; one of his shirts had his name written on the collar, and it woulda reached past his knees the size he is now. That's what I'm talkin' about!"

"You know, you're being awful loud for having an upset little kid sleeping next door..."

"You're right. Sorry." They continued playing in silence...or at least relative quiet.

"Do not mess with the Man, got it memorized?"

"Is that even legal in this game? Jeez..."

"Serves you right..."

"What did you even do?"

"I think it'd be a good idea for me to keep that a secret..."

"What are you doing?"

They both jumped and looked at the door simultaneously. "Demyx, I thought you were asleep."

Demyx nodded. He was clutching his stuffed killer whale and wearing his favorite "Love Potion #9" shirt for a nightshirt; as Axel had predicted, it now reached past his knees. "I was. Then I woke up."

"I told you you were being too loud..."

Demyx shook his head. "I was lonely." He climbed up on Axel's bed and watched the game over their heads. "What are you doing?"

"We're playing Dead or Alive 3. And I am winning."

"Oh." Demyx watched silently for a while. "It's fighting," he said with some disgust after a while.

"Well, that does sort of help the competitive part..." Demyx snorted and sat back. A few minutes later, Axel and Roxas heard sitar music behind them. It was a slower, much simpler melody than they were used to hearing, but the style was already showing through. Axel paused the game and looked up. Demyx wasn't playing them a scrap of attention anymore; he was entirely focused on the child-sized sitar he was playing. It took him fifteen minutes to realize he had an attentive audience, at which point he blushed bright red and tried to hide behind his sitar. "Oh, stop it. You're good at that."

Demyx smiled shyly and buried his face in Axel's pillow. Then his stomach growled. "I'm hungry."

Axel and Roxas looked at each other. They shook their heads simultaneously - while lunch was usually the least attended meal of the day, because that was when the most members would be gone on missions, they still didn't want to explain the five-year-old to one more person than they had to. Besides, Xaldin would respond as well to a small child in his kitchen as Vexen had to a small child in his lab. "All right, Roxas and I are gonna go get some lunch, and when we come back, we'll bring you something to eat."

Demyx shook his head emphatically. "No. Don't leave me alone."

Roxas rolled his eyes at Axel. "Did that not occur to you before you opened your mouth? You go eat first, and bring him something. I'll stay here and keep him company until you get back." Demyx grinned and hugged Roxas's neck from behind.

* * *

"Eight, what are you doing with that plate?"

Axel eyed Xaldin nervously.  _Please stop glaring at me, scary man._  "Demyx isn't feeling well enough to come down, so he asked me to grab some food for him." Xaldin raised an eyebrow, then turned away, accepting Axel's explanation. Well, it was kinda true.

Axel teleported back up to his room to find the lights had been turned out. There were a chain of little water globes hanging in the air, and Roxas was illuminating them one by one while Demyx watched the flickering lights in amazement. "Nice light show you got going there, Rox."

They both jumped. The water globes collapsed and splashed on the floor, soaking Roxas. "Agh! Way to interrupt! You made him lose his concentration."

Demyx's face fell. "I'm sorry, Roxas." He collected the water into a single large globe, then spun it into a long strand that he wound around his neck like a scarf.

"Anyway, here's your lunch, miscreant." Axel handed it to him and turned the lights on.

Demyx took the plate eagerly and started eating, more neatly than Axel would have expected for a kid his age. "What's a miscreant?"

"Um...a kid who doesn't behave, I guess."

"But you told Vexen I was well-behaved."

"I did. And you are, for the most part. I was being silly."

Demyx reached up with his fork and smeared a little rice and gravy on Axel's nose. "Now you look silly."

Axel wiped it off with a finger, then licked his finger. "And you're misbehaving."

"No, I'm not; I'm being silly!"

Roxas choked back a laugh. "He's got you there, I think. I'm going to go feed myself."

* * *

"You know, we've watched enough movies for one night...I think it's time for you to go to bed." Axel's DVD collection was heavily weighted towards the PG-13 and R-rated, and he just plain didn't have access to anything geared towards kindergarteners, but he and Roxas had managed to scrape up a few that Demyx could possibly watch between dinner and bedtime without being terrified, confused, or led to ask awkward questions. He didn't understand everything that was going on onscreen, and he still asked questions, but they were answerable questions. "Why's the old lady yelling at the princess?" was so much easier to deal with than "Why's the bad guy taking that woman's clothes off?" or "Is he gonna come through the screen with that chainsaw?!" And Demyx watching movies was easier to deal with than Demyx playing carelessly with water or Demyx messing with your hair or possessions.

 

Sleepy Demyx was even easier to deal with. He yawned and rubbed his eyes, then flopped on Axel's shoulder. "I'm not tired," he murmured.

"You're a terrible liar." Demyx didn't answer, just snuggled deeper into Axel's shoulder. "Come on, shrimpy. Bedtime."

"I'm not a shrimpy." Axel chuckled softly and picked him up, stooping to retrieve his whale. By the time they made it the 15 feet into Demyx's room, Demyx was almost asleep.

Axel put him down on the bed and set his stuffed whale down next to him. Demyx immediately grabbed the whale and hugged it tight. "Good night, shrimpy," Axel said as he tucked Demyx in. Demyx murmured something incomprehensible and fell asleep almost immediately.

Now Axel was faced with a dilemma. He could watch a movie or play a video game more suited to his tastes and maturity level, but Demyx might wake up and walk in on something someone his current age wasn't supposed to see. He could go hang out in Roxas's room, but if Demyx woke up needing something, Axel would no longer be there. He couldn't simply lock his bathroom door for the same reason.

_Oh, the joys of living with small children. I hope to hell Vexen figures out what to do with him soon._

Eventually, he went for playing one of his less-violent games and hoping Demyx didn't wake up and wander in. He never did, which Axel figured was a good sign for the future. When he was in the bathroom brushing his teeth and testing his blood sugar before bed - Kingdom Hearts forbid he ever have to try explaining diabetes to a five-year-old - he listened at Demyx's door and heard nothing.

_Guess the kid's a sound sleeper, then. Good. Means I'll get more sleep._

* * *

_Well, so much for that._

Axel groaned, rolled over, and glared at the clock. 1:30. Full-grown, Demyx would get an earful for playing his sitar so late. The age he was, Axel had no idea what to do with him.

He didn't turn Demyx's light on, just summoned a large enough flame to see by. "What are you doing awake?" he whispered. "I thought you were asleep!"

Demyx was sitting on his bed, clutching his sitar. His stuffed killer whale was right next to him. "I was scared of the dark."

Axel sighed. He should have seen this coming from a mile away. "Well, why didn't you turn a light on or come wake me up or something?"

"Because I'm supposed to be a grown-up...and grown-ups aren't supposed to be scared of the dark."

 _Do not call the little kid an idiot. If he was nineteen instead of five, it would be automatic, but he's only a little kid._  "Demyx...maybe you're supposed to be grown-up, but right now, you're only a little kid. It's okay to be scared of the dark."

Demyx blinked at him. "Axel...how old am I?"

"Nineteen."

Demyx's mouth fell open. "Wow. That's old. How old are you?"

Axel smiled involuntarily. "Twenty-two."

"Wow. That's even older. How old is Roxas?"

"I don't know exactly, but I'd guess he's fifteen or sixteen."

"How old is Xigbar?"

Axel laughed. "I have no idea, and I'm not going to ask him anytime soon. I'm not keen on getting shot, got it memorized?" Demyx giggled, and Axel tickled his ribs, which only encouraged him. "Boy, are you wiggly! Like a little fishy!"

Demyx snapped playfully at his hand. "Grr! I'm a shark!"

Axel jerked his hand back. "Aah! Don't eat me!" Demyx giggled even harder. Then he yawned. "Tired again?" Demyx kept giggling, but he couldn't hold back another yawn. "I guess you are. Back to bed with you, little shark." Demyx snapped at his hand again as he pulled the covers up. "Please don't eat me."

Demyx reached down to retrieve his stuffed whale. "Good night, Axel. I wouldn't really eat you. You're too nice."

"Well, thanks...I guess..."

* * *

When Axel woke up to find something small, soft, warm, and snoring curled up next to him, he didn't waste too much time wondering. "Morning, Demyx...take it you couldn't stay asleep again."

Demyx opened one eye. "Hi, Axel." He closed his eye and snuggled up even closer.

"Hey, what am I, a giant teddy bear?"

Demyx shook his head and poked Axel's exposed ribs. "You're not very soft. You're warm, though. Really warm."

"Well, I'm glad you've found something I'm good for...I really gotta get up now, though. I have a day to start."

"Why?"

"I'm hungry. I want breakfast. I might have a mission, though I definitely hope I don't." Axel carefully rolled out of bed, trying not to squish Demyx by accident. "You can just stay there until I get back from breakfast, okay?" Demyx burrowed under the covers. "Guess so."

The first thing Axel did when he got down to the kitchen was grab a can of Coke out of the fridge. "I take it the stress of childcare has your blood sugar a little low, Nanny Axel?" Roxas muttered.

Axel took a long drink. "I don't know how to respond to that, actually. I'm debating between 'I see myself as more of a big-brother figure' and 'Bite me'."

"'Bite me' is shorter, but the one about being a big-brother figure is less likely to make me hit you."

"Okay then, I see myself as more of a big-brother figure than a nanny."

"Cool." Roxas went back to eating for a minute. "So how is he?"

"I found him sleeping in my bed when I woke up this morning." Roxas snorted in an effort not to laugh. "Seems he's afraid of the dark."

"I gotta say, this doesn't surprise me overmuch..."

Xigbar was going around the table handing out mission assignments. Axel glared at the white envelope he'd been handed. "Crap. I'd been hoping I wouldn't get a mission today."

Xigbar glanced back at him. "Dude, it might be a good idea for you to hand that over to its intended recipient."

Axel blinked. "Huh?"

Roxas snatched it out of his hand and showed him the name written on the other side. "That's mine, doofus. Though if you were seriously hot on doing it for me, I won't argue."

* * *

"Good morning, Demyx, time to wake up for real...what the h- heck are you doing?!"

Demyx was lying on the floor, holding a bubble of water over his mouth. He was inhaling from it - the bubble kept shrinking and growing with each breath in and out - and water was running out of his gills all over the floor. Under its regular tan, his face was white with terror.

Axel set the plate of food down hastily. "Are you okay? What's wrong?" Demyx held the bubble away from his face for a few moments, but he couldn't catch his breath to answer. He was wheezing nonstop. Axel didn't wait to find out more; he just picked Demyx up and ran to Vexen's lab.


	3. Part 3

"So what's the matter with him?"

As soon as Vexen removed the stethoscope, Demyx summoned another ball of water and started breathing from it. His already-damp shirt was quickly soaked afresh. "Asthma," Vexen said. "Textbook presentation, except for the gills. Extremely useful bypass mechanism in case of an attack, those." He disappeared through a portal, presumably back to his lab, and returned to the medical wing a moment later carrying an inhaler. "Do you know what to do with this?" Demyx nodded. "Good." Vexen handed it to him. The bubble of water disappeared as Demyx grabbed the inhaler and put it up to his mouth.

Axel scratched his head in bewilderment. "He's never had asthma before, though...has he?"

"Not that I am aware of. His Other, however..."

"Oh, lovely." Axel sighed. "So except for not having a heart, he basically has turned into his - very young - Other. I mean, this obviously isn't a totally new development; I don't think he could figure out what to do with an inhaler just by looking at it, he's obviously had to use one before..."

"Eight, you just rehashed my conclusion."

"Well, excuuuuuse me."

Demyx was breathing air a little more easily now; he wasn't wheezing so loudly and didn't seem to be struggling so hard to get air into his lungs. "Excellent. Nine, keep that inhaler with you at all times, understood?" Demyx nodded miserably. "You two are free to go now...if he has another attack, even if he recovers with the use of his inhaler, let me know."

Axel nodded and picked Demyx up. "All right. Been an interesting morning, hasn't it?" Demyx buried his face in Axel's shoulder. "Poor Dems. That really sucks, doesn't it?" Demyx nodded. "It's over now, though. You're gonna be okay."

"Axel...I wanna go home."

Technically, they were home - there certainly wasn't any other home to go to. Axel just teleported the two of them back to Demyx's room before rescuing the abandoned plate. "If you're hungry, I can reheat this for you."

Demyx just shook his head and crawled into bed. "Where's Benji?"

"Who's Benji?"

"My whale..." Demyx looked at him reproachfully.

"Ah...probably in my room still." Axel went and retrieved the stuffed killer whale Demyx had left in his bed, not wasting time wondering what kind of name "Benji" was for a whale. "There, is that better?" Demyx snatched the whale and curled up under the covers. "Are you gonna be okay now?"

Demyx looked pointedly at the stereo. "I wanna listen to music."

Why am I not surprised... Axel sorted through Demyx's CD collection, selecting instrumental and classical music - he wasn't sure Demyx would get anything out of rock anymore. On the plus side, he was pretty sure Demyx would like whatever he eventually picked.

* * *

He'd been expecting the music would lull Demyx to sleep eventually, but as it turned out, Axel was the one who wound up falling asleep after a couple hours, sitting with his back against the wall. He wasn't aware that he'd done more than close his eyes for a few seconds until something splattered close to him. One eye cracked open. Something splattered against his chest. "Hey!"

Demyx giggled. "Wake up, Axel!" He threw another ball of water that splattered next to Axel's head.

"I'm awake! I'm awake! Stop water-bombing me!" Axel stood up hastily, holding his hands up in surrender. "I thought you were the one who was supposed to be going to sleep!" Demyx shook his head and stuck out his tongue. "You're feeling awfully silly right now, aren't you, shrimpy?"

"I'm not a shrimpy." Demyx put his hands over his stomach. "I'm a hungry."

"You're a hungry? I thought you were a Demyx." Demyx giggled. Axel looked at the clock. "Holy sh- crap, it's past lunchtime already. I must have been asleep for a - heck of a lot longer than I thought."

Demyx slid off the bed, "Benji" in tow. "Where's Roxas?"

"He's gone on a mission. He won't be back for a few hours yet. Actually, he might not even get back tonight; he might be gone until tomorrow, or even for a few days."

Demyx pouted. "Aww. So you gotta leave me alone while you eat?"

"Actually..." Axel considered. "Since everyone else has probably eaten already, I can take you with me."

"Yay!" Demyx cheered and grabbed his hand, and they walked down to the kitchen together.

Axel had miscalculated - there was one Organization member who didn't eat with "everyone else" if he could help it. Zexion looked from Axel to Demyx, then back at Axel, then back at Demyx. "Nine...you've...changed somewhat since I last saw you."

Demyx grinned and waved. "Hi, Zessy!"

"'Zessy'..." Zexion stood there for a moment. "I've been called worse." He went back to preparing his own lunch. "I take it his mental faculties have regressed along with his physical appearance?"

Axel opened his mouth a full second before he actually said anything. "...If I'm understanding what you just said right, then yeah. Is there enough of that to share or should I make us sandwiches?"

Zexion smirked faintly - which was pretty much as good as anyone ever got out of him. "I may still be able to find it within my empty chest to take pity on and feed a small child who appears to be well-behaved. You, on the other hand, had better start looking for bread."

Axel blinked. "I just got burned, didn't I."

"Yes, Eight, you might say that. What exactly happened to Nine, or do you not know?"

Axel shrugged as he investigated the breadbox. "No idea. He just woke up like that yesterday morning. The night before he'd come back complaining about what a weird world he'd been sent to that day. He's somehow regained his hearing, along with his Other's unusual and exotic skin tone...and asthma."

Zexion froze and blinked in surprise. "Did his Other have asthma?"

"I got that impression, but I don't know for sure. This is our last tub of butter, unless there's more somewhere I don't know about...where's the grocery list?"

"In exactly the same place it usually is." Zexion went back to what he was doing. "I suppose it's no use questioning him at the moment...did he explain what was so bizarre about the world he'd been sent to?"

"Not in any useful terms. He said it was put together wrong or something."

"Hmm. I suppose I could go and look at where he was sent that day, though I hesitate to pay a visit there myself...the situation calls for some research, don't they all, luckily, otherwise I would serve no real purpose."

Axel pulled his head out of the fridge. "You mean you're gonna look into this? See if there's anything we can do?"

"Why not?" Zexion gave Demyx a small bowl of some sort of stir-fry over noodles. Demyx sniffed it and dug in eagerly. "It seems like an interesting little problem."

"Interesting...little..."

"It's called a pun, Eight. Not necessarily something you'd understand."

* * *

"How long have you been playing sitar?" Kind of a stupid question, Axel knew, as the answer was about three times as long as Demyx remembered being alive at the moment.

Demyx shrugged. "I dunno." Most of the time, he'd play seated on any one of half-a-dozen blue-green pillows scattered across his floor, but he'd developed a strong preference for one in particular, though how he could pick it out from the rest Axel couldn't say to save his life.  _Next thing, he'll be carrying it around like that whale,_  Axel thought. Demyx had other things on his mind than pillows, namely playing sitar.

"Hmm...aren't most sitars bigger than that one?"

Demyx hugged his child-sized instrument. "This one's mine."

"So?"

"So, it's just right for me."

"...Okay." There was something about his logic Axel couldn't argue with, especially since it was probably true. Demyx disappeared into his own little world again. Axel wished him a nice stay; apparently it was a happy place. Full of sitar music, no doubt.

 _How much does he really remember? He remembers everyone's names, and who he likes and doesn't like, how to get around the castle and how to use his powers and all that, and he definitely remembers how to play sitar. But - does he remember anything else? He didn't know he was supposed to be deaf...I wonder, if I asked him about New Orleans or the_ Edmund Fitzgerald _or that time when half of us all got sick at once, including him...actually, no, I'd better not ask him about the_ Edmund Fitzgerald _, just in case he does remember._

_But...that would suck a lot, if it turned out he doesn't remember and we can't get him back to the age he's supposed to be, or if we can get him back to normal but he doesn't get his memories back._

_Actually...know what a good leading question would be?_

"Demyx, what was your Other's name?"  _Shit, does he even know what I'm talking about?_  "Back before you lost your heart?"

"Edmy." Demyx didn't miss a note.

Axel was pleased at first, but then he realized maybe it wasn't quite as good a question as he'd thought at first. "Remember that picture I showed you? Where were we when that picture was taken?"

Demyx blinked in confusion. It took him a few moments to remember he was actually in that picture. "...I don't know."

Axel sighed heavily. "Just try to remember, okay? See if you can think of anything that might ring a bell?"

Demyx thought hard. "I remember a...storm..."

"Storm, yeah, there had been a bad storm there." The worst storm Axel had ever heard of, and the two of them had had the piss-poor luck to land in the middle of it, but that had been months before the picture was taken.

Demyx looked at him uneasily. "Did I make it storm?"

"No. You didn't make that storm. I don't think you could make a storm that big if you tried."

Demyx shivered a little. "That's good...because I remember a storm where something really bad happened, and it was my fault, 'cause I made it storm."

Axel gave Demyx a hug, sitar and all. He didn't see fit to tell him that the storm he was remembering was very real.

 _The church bell chimed 'till it rang twenty-nine times, for each man on the_ Edmund Fitzgerald...

* * *

"So are you two still alive?"

"Oh, hi, Roxas...jeez, hold still for a second, will you? I feel like I'm trying to towel off an eel...I'm just rediscovering the joys of trying to bathe small children. Fortunately, Demyx likes baths. Unfortunately, I got a shower in the process. He's a prolific splasher."

There was a pause on the other side of the bathroom door. "Is the bathroom flooded?"

"I've seen it worse...you know, can't you just, like, float the water off yourself, or absorb it into your skin or something?" Demyx blinked as if the idea had just occurred to him. A second later, little drops of water started peeling off his skin, arranging themselves into chains and strings like pearls. As soon as he was dry, he took the towel out of Axel's hands and wrapped himself in it so that only his face was visible. "Cute. Real cute. Now can you dry off the floor before I slip and break my neck or something?" Axel himself didn't need any help drying off; he air-dried five times as fast as normal. "And all the water goes back into the tub, not back on the floor - Rox, you're not laughing at me, are you? You are, aren't you?"

"I'm just trying to imagine what it looks like in there..."

"Pretty soon, it's gonna look like nothin'. Sorry if you're disappointed. All right, time to get your wet and wriggly self into bed, shrimpy."

Demyx hugged Axel's leg. "Sorry I got you all wet."

"I'll dry...come on, bed." He half-escorted, half-chased Demyx back into his own room. A few minutes later, Demyx was dressed in a fresh nightshirt and under the covers with his killer whale. Axel didn't fully close his bathroom door, so a crack of light still shone through. "So...how was your day?"

"On the long side, and not all that exciting, though I guess on most missions 'exciting' isn't a good thing. I got some good food while I was there, which is always a plus. How was yours?"

Axel took a deep breath. "...Exciting."

"Oh, great. What'd he do, wander into Larxene's room or flood Marluxia's garden?"

"More exciting than either of those. He had an asthma attack."

Roxas's eyes bugged. "What?!"

"Yeah, that was as fun as it sounds. If I had a heart, I'd have had a heart attack."

"I'll bet...something else his Other had that's just now coming back?"

"Yeah...hopefully it'll go away when we figure out how to get him back to normal."

"Great...now how do we do that?"

"...Wait and hope Zexion figures something out?"

"Okay...what if he can't?"

Axel blinked. Well...there would only be one option... "Let's just assume he will." Fourteen years was a very long time...they'd find some way to reverse this before then...


	4. Part 4

Axel woke up that night to find something small, soft, and warm trying to wriggle into his bed. "You don't like sleeping alone, do you?"

"No." Demyx hesitated and let himself slide back down. "Sorry."

"Well, if you're already here, you might as well stay -" Axel picked him up and lifted him onto the bed. "What's got you worried? The dark?"

Demyx shook his head. "I'm scared of having another attack."

Axel sighed. He couldn't argue with that very well. "Did you bring your inhaler, just in case?"

"Mmhmm." Demyx showed him the tube clutched in his hand.

"Good." Axel pulled the blankets over the little interloper. "I hope you won't have another attack, but I feel better knowing you've got it, just in case."

Demyx snuggled up close. "You're warm."

"Well...fire..."

Demyx didn't respond. He was already snoring lightly. Axel couldn't help but smile a little as he settled back down to sleep.

* * *

 _There's not a person out there who doesn't think I deserve this, myself included,_  Lea thought. At least the doctor who was required to preside over all executions looked extremely reluctant to be there.

He didn't fully understand why they bothered to strap him to the table - if he ran, they'd probably just shoot him. It was easier just to lie back and wait for the poison.

Something caught his eye in the corner - an inky black cat with yellow eyes, or that's what it looked like to him. He wondered who the hell had let a cat into the chamber, but - well, what harm was it going to do him at this point?

As the first round was pumped into his veins - the anesthetic, that would keep him from noticing when his heart and lungs stopped - the cat hopped up onto his chest, as if it was trying to get at his heart. But...what sort of cat had antennae...?

Axel jerked awake suddenly. Demyx squirmed and muttered in protest. "Oh...sorry...I just had a...bad dream."

Demyx lifted his head and stared at him as if this was some great revelation. "You had a bad dream?"

"Yeah. Even grown-ups can have bad dreams sometimes."

Demyx considered him carefully for a moment. Then he gave Axel a hug. "Aww. It'll be okay. It's just a dream."

It wasn't just a dream - it was the memory of losing his heart. But he didn't care to tell Demyx that. "Are you trying to make me feel better or something?"

Demyx nodded. "Yup. Hugs make bad dreams go away."

"Well, who told you that?"

"My grandma." Axel had to practically bite his tongue to keep from asking more - he knew Demyx's Other's grandmother was dead, and whether he remembered that or not, no good would come of reminding him.

"Well...I think it worked. We'd better get back to sleep - we'll have to get up soon enough anyway." Demyx nodded and settled right back down, using Axel's chest for a pillow.

* * *

"Okay, Demyx...please get off me now." Demyx didn't so much as twitch. He apparently continued sleeping peacefully, with his head on Axel's chest. "Demyx, you're drooling on me." Demyx tried to hold still, but he couldn't quite stifle a giggle. "You're awake. Quit pretending you're still asleep." Demyx continued to giggle, and Axel rolled him off. "Seriously. I gotta wake up and get moving now."

"Nooo!" As Axel tried to climb out of bed, Demyx grabbed his pajama pants, and he had no real choice but to stop in his tracks. "Don't go!"

"Demyx...let go of my pants..." Demyx let go and sat back, looking terrified. "I gotta get some breakfast now. Really. For you too, remember." Demyx sniffled and nodded. "Don't worry. Nothing's gonna happen...oh." He suddenly realized why Demyx was probably freaking out - last time Axel had left him alone to go to breakfast, he'd had an asthma attack. "You'll be okay. I promise."

Demyx looked up at him tearfully, clutching his stuffed whale tightly. "What if I have another attack?"

Axel took the hand that was still clinging to the inhaler. "Then you've got this. Even if you have another attack, you'll be fine." Demyx looked up at him fearfully. "Look, if you don't let me go to breakfast, we'll both go hungry." Demyx didn't ask to go with him - he seemed to understand that he wasn't supposed to be seen by most of the Organization. But he kept looking at Axel with those sad, sad eyes. "Are you trying to brainwash me? Trying to make me do what you want just so you won't cry?" Axel meant it as a joke, but Demyx started to tear up. "Oh, wait, now don't cry...hey, wait! It's working! Aaagh!" Demyx didn't think it was funny at all. He started to cry in earnest. Axel had no choice but to give him a hug. "Oh, for the love of...aw, it's okay. I was just joking. But I do have to go get food, before I miss breakfast and have to cook my own. I wouldn't feed my worst enemy any of my cooking."

Demyx sat back, sniffling. "I guess...what did I do when I had an attack when I was older?"

Axel didn't stop to think about how utterly nonsensical that sentence sounded. "You didn't...actually have asthma."

"I...didn't? Really?"

Axel nodded. "Really. You couldn't hear, though."

Demyx recoiled in horror. "I couldn't hear?!" Axel realized just how stupid he'd been to mention that, but he had no choice but to nod. "Then I don't ever wanna get bigger, if I'm not gonna be able to hear music."

Axel gave him another hug. "Don't worry, we found a way you could hear music anyway...but I really need to shower and change and get some breakfast now." Demyx just nodded silently.

* * *

"Just about panicked when I tried to get up and leave."

Roxas sighed. "Not like we should have expected him to be a real confident kid, but...I guess having an asthma attack the first time he was left alone for any real length of time would scare him for good."

"If he has another attack before I get back, I think he's going to just sew himself onto my robes permanently. He's almost disturbingly clingy. One more reason to want him back to normal. Are there any more biscuits left?"

"Not unless Xaldin has more in the oven; I think Larxene just grabbed the last one..."

"There's a couple more left on our end of the table, dude." As Axel sputtered in surprise and tried not to choke on his coffee, Xigbar reached through space and grabbed one for him. "I wanna talk to you as soon as reasonably possible, in as much privacy as you consider necessary."

Axel coughed up a little coffee. "Depends entirely on what you wanna talk about."

"Demyx."

"In that case...I'll catch you in the hall when I'm done, how's that?"

As soon as he finished eating and got some food for Demyx, Axel ducked out into the hallway. Xigbar walked through the wall a minute later. "So, what exactly is going on, dude?"

"With Demyx?" Axel hesitated. "How much do you already know?"

"I know this is the third day straight he hasn't shown for breakfast, or any meal. I know he's still healthy enough to eat, because you keep takin' food up to him. I know Vexen told me he was 'unwell', as he put it, and that I should consider both of you off duty until further notice. What I don't know is what's up with him and why I shouldn't be sendin' you out either."

"Vexen didn't - tell you what was wrong with him?"

"Didn't give me one single detail more than he absolutely had to, dude."

Axel sighed heavily. "If I told you, you wouldn't believe a word I said - you'd better come see him."

Xigbar nodded. "This better be good."

Axel opened a portal back to his room. "Well...depends what you call 'good'."

Demyx was sitting on the floor, playing sitar on his favorite pillow, which he'd brought in from his own room. He looked up when he heard the portal open. "Hi, Xiggy." He set the sitar down as Axel handed him the plate of food.

"So...were you looking for a 'good' excuse? And before you ask, I have no idea. The new skin tone is what his Other looked like. And yeah, he can hear."

Xigbar just stared at the child Demyx in disbelief. "Dude...you were right. If you'd told me, I wouldn't have believed it. So I guess you're the one who gets to play Daddy for now?"

"I prefer to think of myself as an older brother figure, but yeah, basically."

Demyx hugged Axel's leg with one arm. "He's a good brother." Axel blushed and chuckled.

"I can see that, little dude...okay...I...guess that's all I needed to know...later, dudes."

* * *

"What's this?" Demyx held up a shot glass.

Axel grabbed it out of his hand and stuffed it back into the drawer, then slammed the drawer shut. "Okay, that's it, out of my room!" Not only did Axel not want to explain the shot glass, Demyx was perilously close to finding his secret stash of videos that didn't even qualify for an R rating. He just picked Demyx up by the arms and hauled him back into his own room. "I told you, don't mess with my stuff! Got it memorized?" Demyx didn't burst into tears, he just looked at Axel with misty eyes and a quivering lower lip. Axel wasn't impressed; he simply shut both bathroom doors behind him and locked his own. Then he teleported down to Roxas's room, hoping for the chance to interact with someone who had a little sense.

"What's got your boxers in a twist - Demyx find your porn collection?"

"Rox, that's not even funny."

Roxas blinked. "Well, up until right now, I didn't actually know you had one. I was making a joke."

"You know, I was trying to find someone who was going to not torture me..."

"I wasn't trying to...so what did get your boxers in a twist?"

Axel flopped down on the nearest available soft spot, which happened to be Roxas's desk chair. "Demyx suddenly decided that rifling through my drawers was the most fun thing ever. He made an absolute damn mess of the place. And for each word you say that might possibly be interpreted to suggest I shouldn't be able to tell because my room was a mess already, one random possession of yours will suffer a fiery demise."

Roxas looked at him sideways. "You're being remarkably charming."

"I think I've kinda earned the right - I knew it wasn't possible for a little kid to be so sweet and well-behaved all the time. At least he doesn't throw tantrums."

"Demyx throw tantrums...doesn't sound likely. He'll probably forgive you for biting his head off pretty quickly."

"What are you -"

"I know you, Axel. You bit his head off." Axel glanced at the wall and muttered under his breath. "Hopefully, you still had enough sense not to resort to violence."

" _Roxas_  - I don't hit little kids, got it memorized? Even if they're really nineteen and being a pain in the ass!" The room started to smell like smoke.

Roxas recognized the danger sign before Axel even knew about it. "Axel. Chill. If any of my stuff catches fire, there will be bloodshed."

Axel took a deep breath, as if he was about to let Roxas have it with both barrels. "...Good point." He sighed, then sat and stared blankly at the wall for a while as he cooled off. Roxas waited until he'd been toying with the drawstrings on his robe for five minutes before speaking up again.

"You know, knowing Demyx, he's probably pretty upset about getting his head bitten off."

"He deserved it," Axel muttered.

"He is only a kid." Axel muttered something else, meant to be inaudible. "And he hates being alone - you know that; you told me so yourself."

Axel hauled himself to his feet and sighed theatrically. "Fine, I'll go check on him...he's probably sitting on a pillow playing sitar and has forgotten everything else, I bet."

"He might have had another asthma attack."

"Oh, shit - you're right!" Axel opened a portal and teleported to Demyx's room.

Five minutes later, he came running back to Roxas's room. "Rox, I can't find him! He's gone!"

Roxas sat bolt upright. "Gone? What do you mean - gone?"

"Not in his room, not in my room, not in the bathroom, obviously not in your room - where the hell else would he go?"

Roxas shook his head in dismay. "I don't know, but - we'd better start looking!"


	5. Part 5

Axel searched through the castle, halfway to a blind panic.  _Where the hell could he go...there are so many ways he could get into serious trouble in this castle...wander into someplace he's not supposed to be...fall down stairs that are too high for him to manage...hell, he could have an asthma attack and forget his inhaler..._

 _Wait a second. If he did, he'd just breathe water._  That thought made him calm down a little.

 _So where would Demyx go?_  Well, when he was older, the Hall of Empty Melodies had always been the first choice...But a quick check revealed the Hall was, in fact, empty.

 _Well, so much for that...where next?_  Axel couldn't think where, unless Demyx had gone back to his own room since he last checked...Nope. No such luck. And he didn't have any other ideas.

He started checking every public room in the castle - the kitchen, the library, the training arena, everywhere - and ran into Roxas a few times, but not Demyx. Maybe he'd wandered outside...but if he'd wandered out into the city, he might never be found, and if he'd wandered into Marluxia's garden, his days could be numbered. And Demyx liked gardens.

Fortunately, Marluxia wasn't the only member who kept a garden. Hoping he wasn't just wasting his time, Axel opened a portal outside to Lexaeus's garden. The Silent Hero, who was standing protectively over a bench, put a finger to his lips when he saw Axel. "He's asleep," he whispered.

"Well, if he is who I think he is, I'm just glad he's alive..." Axel crossed over to the bench, freely allowing himself to feel guilty as Hell, heart or no heart. Demyx was fast asleep, wrapped in a soft blanket, still clinging to both inhaler and whale plushie. He opened his eyes slightly when Axel approached. "Hi there, Demyx. I've been looking all over for you. I'm sorry for yelling at you like that."

"'Demyx'..." Lexaeus repeated softly. "So it is Nine."

Axel blinked. "Huh? How'd you..."

"There have been...rumors. And the resemblance is clear."

So, there were rumors, were there? Well, Roxas definitely wouldn't start any, and Vexen and Zexion weren't exactly gossipy types... _Damn you, Xigbar. Can't keep your mouth shut, can you?  
_

Demyx closed his eyes and whimpered slightly. Axel picked him up gently, catching the inhaler as it slid out of the child's grasp. "Better not lose that...what's the matter, have another attack?"

"Shortly after he arrived," Lexaeus said. "I was waiting for him to awaken on his own before taking him to Vexen."

Axel wanted to kick himself for letting Demyx out of his sight. "Well, I can do that myself...is the blanket yours?"

"It is, but Nine is borrowing it."

"Okay, I'll bring it back later..." Axel looked down at Demyx, who still had his eyes closed. "Poor little guy," he murmured. "That must have been really scary."

Demyx opened his eyes again. "I'm sorry for messin' up your stuff," he murmured softly. He leaned on Axel's shoulder, but didn't hide his face in it like he usually did.

Axel hugged him tight. "No, I'm sorry for blowing up at you like that." He opened a portal to Vexen's lab. "Hey, Vexen...you said you wanted to know if he had another attack..."

* * *

"I'm not hungry." Demyx looked away from the plate of food being offered.

Axel sighed in exasperation. "Are you sick, or are you just in a snit?"

"What's a snit?"

"Oh, never mind...just eat your dinner."

"I'm not hungry."

"You know...if you're hungry later, you won't be able to get food then. I'm definitely not gonna get you ice cream in two hours just because you don't want to eat your actual dinner right now." Axel put a hand on Demyx's forehead. "I don't think you have a fever, and you don't look pale or anything, so I don't think you're sick..."

"I'm not. I'm just not hungry."

"...In Kingdom Hearts's name, why not?" Demyx shrugged. "Has someone been sneaking you candy or something? Who? And why haven't I been getting any? I like candy too..." Axel sniffled for theatrical effect. "It's just that no one likes meee...they give you all the candy because you're all small and cute..." Actually, it was more because Axel wasn't supposed to eat candy anymore, but that was beside the point.

Demyx started to crack a smile. "No candy, silly."

"Then why aren't you hungry?"

Demyx shrugged. "I dunno."

"Well, in that case..." Axel withdrew the plate. "I, as you know, am always hungry. I think I'll just eat this myself." He ate slowly, with exaggerated enjoyment. Demyx pretended to ignore him, but eventually found himself tempted. He stared at Axel with pleading eyes. Axel was ready to hand the plate over, but wanted one last joke at Demyx's expense. "What, you want some of this? Oh, wait, that's right. I forgot; you're not hungry. Sor- aah!" While Axel was occupied with wiping water out of his eyes, Demyx sneaked food off his plate. "Hey - when did you grow a sneaky side?" Demyx hastily stuffed the food into his mouth and tried to look innocent. "I thought you weren't hungry!"

"Well...maybe..." Demyx suddenly pointed at something over Axel's shoulder. "Look at that!" Axel turned to look, even though he knew that by the time he looked back, Demyx would have swiped another bite off his plate.

"You know, why don't I just give you the whole plate? Is it more fun this way or something?" Demyx grinned and nodded.

* * *

No small, warm bodies tried to worm their way into Axel's bed that night, which he figured was all to the good. If Demyx was finally feeling secure enough to sleep in his own bed, he might get over some of that clinginess and give Axel a little more freedom - and it wasn't like he missed having something soft and warm curled up against him, content and trusting as a puppy, right? Right? After a quick peek into his room to make sure Demyx was actually asleep, Axel decided it was probably a good idea to just let him stay that way while he showered and dressed and went down to breakfast.

"So how was he?" Roxas asked. Yesterday, Axel had only caught up with him long enough to tell him Demyx had been found and was recovering from another attack.

"It took him a while to get over feeling depressed and picked-on, though I gotta say I can't blame him. But he did eventually snap out of it. He actually spent the night in his own bed for once."

Roxas nodded. "That's a good sign...You know, I've been meaning to ask - how much does he still remember? About the past?"

"Um...he's not a total amnesiac, unlike some, but I don't think he has a very clear memory of anything. I tried quizzing him about it, with mixed results." Axel glared at the envelope suddenly handed to him through a hole in the fabric of space. "Shit. This better be for you again." He checked the back of the envelope - yes, that was his name, number, and title on it - and opened it with deep disgust. Then his face brightened again. "Oh, good. Sparring." He leaned down the table and raised his voice so his opponent could hear. "I love seeing arrogant bastards in pain."

Marluxia glared at him. "I'll be sure to bring you a mirror, then."

"Why, so I can break it with your face? You can do that yourself, just look at it...you've probably got a dozen to spare, knowing you..."

Roxas rolled his eyes as Axel and Marluxia traded barbs nonstop - half of it was for the benefit of Larxene, who was listening to the exchange of insults with concealed interest. "Pair of braggarts," he muttered.

"I'm not bragging, I'm merely proud of my skills...the Pink Fairy, over there, I can't answer for."

"This from someone who can be taken out with a little drizzle of sweet nectar - one excess drop of sugar in your system and you'll go into shock."

"You know, Pinky, I just love the smell of burning vegetation in the morning..."

"A perfect complement to the sound of idiot pyromaniacs begging for mercy?"

"For the love of Kingdom Hearts, you two, would you save it for the actual fight!"

"You seem unimpressed, Roxas..."

"Probably because he's sitting closest to you. I daresay he's slightly chilly."

" _Chilly?!_  Maybe he's just allergic to the smell of rotting compost!"

Axel and Marluxia both suddenly realized there were guns at the backs of their heads. " _Dudes! Shut up!_ "

Roxas covered his face with his hands.

* * *

Axel staggered back to his room feeling thoroughly bruised and abused - that had been a much narrower win than he'd care to admit, and he was ready for a rest. Good thing Roxas had volunteered to take Demyx some breakfast.

He peeked into Demyx's room. "You doing all right?" No answer. No Demyx, for that matter.

Well, maybe Roxas had taken him back to his own room to babysit. Axel teleported down to check - he was too sore to walk - and discovered that not only was there no Demyx in Roxas's room, there wasn't even a Roxas.

Axel sighed heavily. When Demyx's whereabouts were unknown, the first place to check was the Hall of Empty Melodies. When Roxas's whereabouts were unknown, the first place to check was...

He teleported up to Naminé's room. Naminé was holding Demyx in her lap as he played with her crayons - something she didn't usually let anyone do, but maybe small children were an exception. Roxas was standing nearby, looking pleased with himself.

"So, Rox...what exactly are we doing here? Exploiting small children in order to make a little progress with the ladies?"

Roxas started, then blushed and glared. "Well, after listening to you and Marly snipe at each other trying to impress Larxene, I think this way's a little better. Besides, if his memory's all screwed up..."

"Okay, you put your priorities in the wrong order there, got it memorized?"

"He's having a ton of fun, Axel," Naminé pointed out, looking at Demyx.

Demyx nodded and held up a sheet full of little green fish and blue notes. "It's for you."

Axel took it. "Well, thanks..." Demyx grinned and started in on a new sheet, humming to himself as he drew more little notes. "So, assuming his memory problems have even been a concern, not just an excuse - what's up with him?"

Naminé shook her head. "I don't know. I don't know if there is anything wrong with him. Maybe he's just too young to know what he remembers."

"And how is that different from not remembering what he knows?" Axel shook his aching head. "Never mind. I'm gonna go take a nap. I feel like I've been hit by a falling tree."

Roxas half-smirked. "I take it the fight didn't go as well as expected?"

"Hey, you should see the other guy..."

* * *

Axel actually woke up feeling worse than before. He groaned, trying not to stretch too far and make his aching muscles hurt even more.  _Maybe I got a little poisoned somehow...knowing Marly, I wouldn't be surprised...ow._  He gingerly opened his eyes to discover he was staring straight into a pair of bright aqua eyes. "Demyx? What are you doing in here?"

"You got in a fight. You're hurt."

Axel couldn't help but smile a little at the concern in Demyx's voice. "Eh, I'll be okay. You should see the other guy."

"But why'd you fight?"

Axel shrugged, a little painfully. "The Superior told me to. I need to keep in shape. I don't like Marly much anyway."

Demyx's eyes widened. "They made you fight?!"

"Well, yeah...if I let myself get out of shape, I might not be able to fight when I really needed to. So when we haven't had anything better to fight for a while, we practice on each other."

Demyx looked like he wanted to cry. "I don't ever wanna get bigger!"

Axel blinked in confusion. "Why in Kingdom Hearts not?!"

"Because I won't be able to hear music, and they're gonna make me fight!"

Axel sighed. "But you won't have asthma anymore, and you'll be a much better sitar player..."

"But I'm not gonna be able to hear it!" Demyx wailed.

"Yes you will...I told you we found a way for you to hear music anyway..."

Demyx turned his back. "I'm just gonna practice more so I get better now and I don't hafta get bigger."

Axel groaned in exasperation. "Demyx...whether we manage to put you back to normal or not, it's gonna happen anyway! You will get bigger whether you want to or not! It's called growing up, got it memorized?"

Demyx glanced back at him with tearful, panicked eyes before fleeing to his own room. Axel was about to give up and go back to sleep when he heard muffled wheezing sounds. He hauled himself out of bed, ignoring a few hundred different aches and pains. Demyx was sitting on his floor, holding his inhaler in one hand and his chest with the other. "Axel...help..." he gasped.

Axel picked him up and sat down on the bed with him. "Did you already use your inhaler?" Demyx nodded. "Good." Axel gave him a comforting hug, not so tight it would restrict his breathing any more than it already was. Demyx lay his head on Axel's shoulder, wheezing miserably. "You'll be all right soon...everything will be all right..."


	6. Part 6

"Three attacks in three days...and you have no idea what common link they might have?"

Axel shook his head. "None of them have started while I was in the room. The first and last time, he was alone; you'll probably want to ask Lexaeus about the second time."

Vexen sighed. "It would be easier to treat and prevent if I had some idea of what might be triggering his attacks. They rarely occur purely spontaneously."

Demyx looked up warily. "I was...scared...each time..."

Axel shrugged. "Could that be a trigger?"

"If he had a heart, then yes, it could be."

"If he had a - for the love of Kingdom Hearts, man!"

"Eight..."

"You wanna try explaining the emotional psychology of Nobodies to a five-year-old? Worlds of luck to you; you're gonna need it. Just tell me how that works out."

"Eight, you're being ridiculous."

"No, I'm not. I'm being sarcastic."

Vexen sighed. "Very well then...temporarily accepting your bizarre hypothesis that lack of a heart makes no difference to a small child, you're frightening him." Indeed, Demyx was looking at them both with wide, scared eyes.

 _Don't hit the antique. You'll get in trouble and scare Demyx even worse. Though if you gave him another attack, that would kind of prove you were right...Not worth it._  Axel sighed heavily. "Is there anything else you need us for, or can we go?"

"You two may go." Vexen waved a hand, as if he would be glad to get rid of them.

"All right then..." Axel helped Demyx off the table and onto his feet, instead of picking him up and carrying him - he was still too sore from his fight with Marluxia to carry him around. "Time to quit bugging Vexen." Demyx followed him out without a word. "I think we both need a rest, don't you?" Demyx nodded silently. "You're being awful quiet, aren't you."

"I'm scared."

"I don't blame you. So am I."

"What are you scared of?"

"I'm worried about you."

"You are?" Axel nodded. "Why?"

"Because you're so scared all the time, and I don't like seeing you so scared." Demyx thought about that for a moment, then forced a smile just for Axel's benefit. Axel chuckled softly. "You're a brave little guy."

Demyx shook his head. "No I'm not. Brave people don't get scared."

"No, no, no, idiots don't get scared. Brave people do get scared. They just don't let their fear win." Axel's inspirational speech didn't have the intended effect - Demyx still remembered enough to know he had a reputation for doing just that. Axel looked back and saw he was crying silently. As soon as Demyx knew he'd been seen, he wiped the tears away and pulled his hood up so Axel couldn't see his face. "Look at you - you're pretending you're not upset just so I won't get upset worrying about you. You're braver than you think."

* * *

Axel didn't even drop Demyx off in his own room - he used him as a hot-water bottle on his sore ribs instead. This worked well until Demyx woke up and decided he'd rather play sitar.

Axel opened one eye and looked at him critically. "What are you up to?"

Demyx blinked in alarm and unsummoned his sitar. "Nothing."

"Oh...might as well get back to it, then. Sorry to interrupt." Demyx blinked again, this time in confusion, and retrieved his sitar. "I'll just listen." It always paid to listen to Demyx play, unless you had a hangover. Even if all he was doing was practicing scales, which is what he was doing now. And it certainly seemed to be helping Demyx's mood.

"Wake up, silly." Axel blinked and discovered he'd fallen asleep again listening to Demyx. Demyx had reversed his sitar and was now poking him with the end of it.

"I'm not a silly, I'm an Axel." Demyx giggled. Axel tickled his ribs, and he started laughing uncontrollably. "That's more like it, little wiggly fishy." Demyx leaned down and caught Axel's fingers in his mouth. "Oh no! A shark!" That set Demyx off again, and Axel retrieved his hand. Demyx growled playfully and snapped at him, but he kept his hand out of reach. "Fierce little shark, aren't you, shrimpy."

Demyx sprawled on his side. "I'm not a shrimpy. I'm a Demyx."

"Good. I like Demyxes. Shrimp I'm not so fond of."

Demyx sat up and gave Axel a hug and a sloppy kiss. "Good. I like Axels. They're so nice." He sat back and looked at Axel critically. "You're all red now."

"Aww. It's because you're so sweet," Axel told him. Demyx grinned. "All right, I'm hungry, and I can't eat you, so I gotta get some food from the kitchen before it closes. Bet you're hungry too, aren't you." Demyx nodded, but he didn't look so happy anymore. "Why don't you practice with your sitar until I get back?"

"Okay..." Demyx picked up his abandoned sitar and went back to playing scales as Axel headed for the kitchen.

* * *

"Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do with him anymore. Now he doesn't want to grow up. Hopefully he doesn't decide to run off to Neverland or something."

Roxas raised an eyebrow. "And here I was starting to get the impression you almost liked him better like this."

"I don't think so. Life was a lot less stressful when he was closer to my size. He's a sweet kid, in general, but..."

"Okay, this is starting to sound familiar."

"Yeah, you're the only one I can bitch to. Sorry."

"Hey, if it keeps you from sending random objects to a fiery doom..."

Axel sighed and nodded. "The first couple days, it was cool. If it turns out we're gonna have to wait for him to grow up, I guess I could learn to deal with it. Right now, I really miss the idea of free time."

"It's only been, what, three days? Four?"

"Four days, I think so far. It doesn't help that I can't turn my back on him without worrying about him having another attack. He did have another one earlier."

Roxas groaned. "When he told me his Other was never really healthy, I thought he meant because he was poor and didn't get enough to eat on a regular basis. I wasn't thinking of chronic health problems. I feel sorry for him - not knowing when his windpipe is going to just swell shut on him." He looked closely at Axel. "You know, there's a welt on your face about this big around."

"I know. Marly fights dirty. Unfortunately for him, so do I." Axel grinned wickedly. "He's gonna have trouble walking for a week. And I don't think he'll care so much about impressing Larxene for a bit."

"...You do fight dirty."

"Better to fight dirty and win than fight clean and lose, got it memorized?"

"Have you seen Vexen at all? Besides just to tell him Demyx had another attack? Knowing Marly, you might have been poisoned or something."

"Actually, no...you're about to suggest I go do so, aren't you."

Roxas nodded. "It's a good idea, you've got to admit. I can keep an eye on Demyx for a while."

"You mean you'll take him to go play with Naminé for a while."

"Well, he likes her. And she likes him."

"Yeah, that's your only consideration, is it? Never mind, I think I'll take you up on that offer. Maybe stop by the library and see if Zexion's found anything yet. If I don't show up again before 8:00, give Demyx a bath; he'll love you for it, but you'll find out what 'wet' is all about."

* * *

"Eight, how do you get yourself into these situations?"

"Under orders - ow! Don't do that, dammit!"

"This would hurt less if you were to hold still."

"Bull. You're enjoying watching me suffer."

"...I won't even dignify that with a response."

"Didn't you just? Ow!"

Vexen was definitely smirking as he stepped back and looked at his handiwork. "I believe that will suffice for the moment...and you may want to put some ice on those contusions."

Axel hastily pulled on his shirt and robe, careful not to dislodge any fresh bandages. "Bite me," he muttered as he vanished through a portal. Landing back in his own room, he went to check on Demyx first thing, before remembering Roxas was taking care of him for a while. Theoretically, only until he was done getting looked over and repaired by Vexen, but...

 _I have a break, and I'm going to take it._  Instead of going to find Roxas and take Demyx back, Axel sat right down and fired up his Xbox for a few minutes.  _Man, how long has it been since I've had a chance to do this?_  A few minutes stretched into an hour, then two, and Axel didn't even have the excuse of losing track of time, but he studiously ignored the clock, trying to milk every instant of free time he had for all it was worth.

He jumped nearly a yard when he heard a portal open behind him. "So, you'd be back after you got done talking to Vexen and Zexion?" Roxas asked.

"Hey, did I say right after? No, just after!" Axel pause his game and turned around. "So, how obnoxious was he?"

"Not at all. He played himself to sleep." Indeed, Roxas was carrying Demyx, who was fast asleep, still holding his stuffed killer whale and drooling contentedly on Roxas's shoulder. Axel tried not to snicker. "Must have been a lullaby."

"He didn't have another attack or anything?"

"Nope. Not a bit of trouble."

"Good," Axel said fervently. "Even Vexen's thinking they're happening too often, and I gotta say, they scare the shit out of me."

"Well, I wouldn't be surprised if he's allergic to something we don't know about yet...so what did Zexion have to say?"

Axel blinked, then slammed a fist against his knee. "Shit. I forgot to talk to him at all."

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Well, that was kind of brilliant on your part."

"Oh, stuff it, you idiot...you'd better put him to bed."

"That would probably be a good idea..." Roxas looked down at Demyx. "Ick. He's drooling on me. Stop laughing." Demyx blinked awake and peered up at him. "Did you hear that? Stop drooling on me!" Demyx closed his eyes with apparent unconcern and snuggled deeper into Roxas's shoulder. "Oh, for...Stop laughing!"

Axel couldn't have stopped laughing if Roxas had repeated the command while holding the business end of a Keyblade to his throat. "I - I'm gonna go talk to Zexion. Make sure his inhaler is close by, just in case."

"Good night, Axel," Demyx murmured, his voice muffled.

"Night, shrimpy."

Demyx lifted his head and blinked sleepily at him. "I'm not a shrimpy..."

"Yes, you are, and stop drooling on Roxas." Axel made a hasty escape.

* * *

"Hellooo...is there anyone in here?"

"Eight..." The speaker was invisible behind the rows of bookshelves. "Do you have some purpose in coming here, or do you just want to annoy me?"

"Ah, hi, Zexion..." Axel made his way to the one table in the library. "I just wanted to ask you - have you found anything yet that we might be able to use to help Demyx?"

Zexion closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, as if he was about to do something extremely unpleasant. "I have found a grand total of one piece of information that I can be certain has any relevance at all to Nine's case," he hissed.

Axel blinked in surprise and stepped back a little. "I take it it's not very good news?"

"Oh, you might say that, yes..." Zexion carefully extracted a worn, tattered, ill-used book from the pile on the table next to him. There was a bookmark stuck sideways in it, marking not just a page, but a line. He opened it to the bookmark. "A transcription of the memoirs of one of the first travelers to actively explore the world Nine was sent to - Fusoba, he called it, though I had known it as Clostira - damaged, stained, completely illegible in parts, but the relevant passage, in which he describes 'bizarre transformations which have overcome certain of our party', is more-or-less intact." Zexion cleared his throat. "'Men suddenly find themselves transformed into the children they once were, or the old men they have yet to become; into their own brothers, fathers, or sons, even into animals - the unfortunate Kige found himself wearing the form of a moogle for a spell - but, thanks be, these transformations are brief; Doctor Pelan discovered their duration to be exactly five hundred heartbeats.' The next part is almost completely illegible and seems to concern the details of these transformations, but I believe the passage I just read details everything we need to know for now." Zexion slammed the book closed. "You understand now how this could be problematic."

Axel sat down heavily on the nearest chair. "Five hundred heartbeats," he murmured in shock. "And Demyx doesn't have a heart."

"In a normal, complete person, the transformation would have lasted less than ten minutes. In a Nobody..."

Axel shook his head in disbelief. "He doesn't have a heart. No heartbeat. So five hundred heartbeats...it'll last less than ten minutes - after he gets his heart back."

"So it would seem." Zexion sighed heavily. "And as the explorers knew the transformations would wear off by themselves in short order, they didn't waste a moment longer than absolutely necessary worrying about them - they certainly didn't bother developing any measures to counter them. I will continue to search, but..." He shook his head. "Also, the world of Clostira has been blacklisted. None of us are to return there for any reason. It's far too dangerous. Even if there was some hope of finding a cure there, there would be no way to return with it."

"Well...thanks anyway, I guess...just wish you'd made that decision before anyone got sent there in the first place..." Axel teleported up to Demyx's room and just stood there, watching him sleep. He looked so peaceful right then, totally - and mercifully - unaware of how he'd just turned everyone's existences upside-down for good.

Axel glanced at the picture on the wall.  _By the time he reaches nineteen all over again, I'll be closer to forty than thirty._  He sighed sadly. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I was hoping things could go back to normal soon, but...I guess this is the new normal." Demyx shifted a little in his sleep, and Axel was briefly alarmed, afraid he was having another attack, but he just smiled faintly and snuggled deeper under the covers.


	7. Part 7

Axel dragged himself back to his room, the picture of misery. "Hey, Rox...I just talked to Zexion..."

Roxas raised an eyebrow. "Good; I'd like to know what he said that's got you looking like your dog was just hit by a car."

Axel sighed heavily. "He found the diary or something of someone else who had the same thing happen to him. The transformation, age shift, whatever."

Roxas waited impatiently. "And?"

"It's normally a very short-term kind of thing - lasting exactly five hundred heartbeats."

Realization was followed shortly by horror and disbelief. The end result was that Roxas looked like he'd been hit with a board. "But...he doesn't...have a heart...so...that..."

"Means that as far as we know, he won't be able to go back to normal until and unless he gets his heart back." Axel squeezed his eyes shut. "Fuck. I had kinda mentioned the possibility of him having to stay the age he is, but - fuck, I didn't think it was gonna be true."

"So...it's gonna be years before he's back to normal."

Axel shook his head. "You don't get it, do you. This is the new normal. He's a hell of a lot younger than we are now, and that's how it's always gonna be. Even if he gets his heart back, I don't know what that'll actually do or if it'll screw him up even worse agewise, if it's not before his next birthday. I don't know if he's even gonna age normally - he might stay five forever."

Roxas sagged into the nearest chair. "Oh, hell. I never thought of that."

Axel stood up and started pacing. "Fuck - I can't believe this. This is insane, dammit. I was fine taking care of him until we got him sorted out and back to normal, but a permanent arrangement..."

"Well...maybe it's not the only way. Maybe there's something else that can be done for him."

"Like what?" Roxas shrugged. "Thought so. Hellfire...we'd better get some sleep. Just maybe life will look less shitty tomorrow."

* * *

Axel woke up the next morning to find Demyx curled up next to him once again, the image of peacefulness and innocence. For a long time, Axel didn't want to move, for fear of waking him up.  _I guess there is some benefit to a fresh start,_  he thought.  _You sleep a hell of a lot better._ Almost unconsciously, he reached out and brushed a strand of hair out of Demyx's face.

Demyx blinked and looked up at Axel. "Axel...why are you so sad?"

Axel shook his head. "It's not important right now."

"I wanna know why you're so sad, though."

Axel sighed. "It's...not important. I'll tell you later."

Demyx pouted. "It is important. You're sad. That makes it important."

"Demyx...leave me alone for a bit, okay?"

Demyx sighed unhappily and lay there in silence for a few minutes. Then he gave Axel a hug. "I don't want you to be sad, Axel."

Axel smiled reluctantly. "Aww. You're such a sweet kid. I'll be okay sooner or later."

Demyx shook his head emphatically. "I want you to be okay now."

Axel hugged him back. "I'm sorry. I know you do, because you're so nice like that. But...it's just not happening. It'll take a little while for me to feel better."  _Like days and weeks, maybe..._

Demyx leaned his head on Axel's shoulder and repeated his original question. "Axel...why are you so sad?" He reached for the little clouds rolling out from under Axel's eyes - tears that were evaporating on contact.

Axel sighed again.  _It's not like he's gonna die or something...and he really is a sweet kid...and, hell, he'll be able to hear music with his own ears instead of needing hearing aids...but..._

_I'll never just be his friend anymore. I'll have to be his daddy or something. And however sweet this kid is, I am really, really going to miss my old friend._

Demyx sniffled. "It's my fault, isn't it?"

Axel blinked. "What? No, of course it isn't."

"Then why won't you tell me why you're sad?"

Axel shook his head. "Because I don't know if you'd be able to understand it. It's not your fault, though. Not because of anything you did."

Demyx sniffled again. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. How sure do you want me to be?"

Demyx buried his face in Axel's shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"Shh. There's nothing for you to be sorry for, got it memorized? I keep telling you, it's not your fault. None of this is your fault."

Demyx looked up miserably. "You wish I was bigger, don't you."

Well...that was what had Axel in the dumps to begin with. "Yeah. I gotta admit, I do."

"Then I'm sorry I'm not bigger."

Axel chuckled weakly. "Heh. Just looking for an excuse, aren't you. But now you're sad too."

Demyx looked thoughtful for a moment. "If I played my sitar for you, would it make you be less sad?"

Axel nodded. "Of course. I always like listening to you play."

"Good. Playing sitar makes me happy." Demyx summoned his instrument and started playing. Axel suddenly realized how much less skilled the child was than the adult. Less confident, less nimble on the strings, made mistakes more easily...

_And he should still be learning. Now he'll never get the chance._

"You're still sad, Axel."

"I know. Play something happy; maybe that will help..."

Demyx tried. He did his best to force his mood, and therefore his music, into something more upbeat. But it just wasn't working. Eventually, he put the sitar down and started to cry. "I can't do it. I'm an awful player."

Axel gave him a hug. "Aw, now I'm sad because you're sad. Listen, maybe you think you're an awful player, but you're better than I'll ever be, and you'll only get better from here, got it memorized?"

"When you find out how to make me get bigger?" Demyx asked. Axel swallowed hard and hugged him even tighter. Demyx picked up on his increased sadness immediately. "Is that why you're sad? You can't ever make me big again?" He leaned on Axel's shoulder, eyes bright with tears.

"I don't know about 'never'..." Axel whispered. "And I thought you didn't want to get bigger."

"If it's making you sad, then I do. I want you to be happy."

"Poor Demyx." Axel stood up, still carrying the tearful child. "You want everyone to be happy, except you."

"I wanna be happy too," Demyx murmured. "I just like making other people happy."

"Well, I'd be happier if you were happier. And if you get all upset and have another attack, I'll be even sadder." Demyx snuggled quietly into Axel's shoulder, tears rolling down his cheeks. "Cheer up or I'll sing to you." Demyx blinked at him in surprise, then gave him an exaggerated frown, obviously refusing to cheer up. "Oh, is that the way you want it? Fine, you deserve it...in Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty, I first laid my eyes on sweet Molly Malone..."

Axel had never been especially proud of his singing voice, but Demyx was already starting to relax. By the time Axel finished the song, he was starting to smile a little. "Mmph. I feel better now."

Axel smiled too. "Are you gonna be okay now?" Demyx nodded. "Good. I'm going to get some breakfast, if there's still some to get." He carried Demyx back into his own room, ignoring the various aches and pains left over from yesterday, and set him down on the bed. On his way out, he turned the stereo on.

* * *

"Demyx, I never thought I'd have to say this, but - it's time to come out of the closet."

That would have seemed funnier if Demyx had been old enough to recognize the double meaning. There was a soft thumping noise, then a series of louder thumps, and Demyx rolled out of the closet in a tangle of hats, scarves, and neckties, which surprised the hell out of Axel. He hadn't realized that Demyx even owned any neckties. "What the - heck were you doing in there?" he asked.

"Exploring."

Demyx was having trouble extracting himself from the mess of clothes; Axel set the plate of food down and gave him a hand. "You went exploring in your own closet? Find anything interesting?"

Demyx held out a little plastic case. "What's this?"

Axel opened the case and looked inside. "Demyx, these are your hearing aids." He tilted the box to show the contents to the boy seated on the floor. "I remember now; I put these away for you."

Demyx straightened up and peered inside. "What are they for?"

"Remember I told you that when you were big, you weren't able to hear?" Demyx nodded warily; having forgotten what it was like, going deaf seemed like the most horrible fate possible to him. "But we found a way you could hear anyway...these are it. You'd put these on your ears and you'd be able to hear again, at least until you took them off."

Demyx gasped in surprise. "Wow. They're so small, though."

"Just big enough to fit on your ears. Too big for you now, though, I think. Good thing you don't need them anymore."

"If I don't need them anymore, why did you put them away?"

"Because you'll probably need them when we find out how to get you back to normal."

"I thought you said you couldn't ever get me bigger again." Demyx's eyes started to fill with tears.

Axel picked him up and set him down on the bed. "It's early days yet. We'll find some way. Now, would you like some breakfast? It's probably a little cold by now, but I can always heat it up for you..."

* * *

"Is something the matter? You've been so quiet...are you sick or something?" Demyx had been remarkably subdued for most of the morning, and he was only picking at his lunch.

"No..."

"Then what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Demyx took another listless bite.

Axel put a hand to his forehead. "You don't have a fever, that I can tell...though, granted, I wouldn't necessarily be able to tell...Does your tummy hurt or something?" Demyx shook his head. "How about your head?"

"No...I'm not sick..."

"Then why aren't you eating?"

Demyx put his plate aside. "I don't feel good," he whispered.

Axel rolled his eyes slightly. "I thought you weren't sick." He moved Demyx over onto his lap. "Do you feel like you're gonna throw up or something?"

Demyx shook his head. "It's not like that...I don't feel good in here." He put a hand over where his heart should be. "Like there's a big hole there where it's not supposed to be. I want it to go away."

Axel nodded understandingly and gave him a hug. "I get it now. You're having a heart attack."

Demyx blinked in confusion. "A what?"

"You know how none of us have hearts...most of the time, we manage to get along okay without them. But every so often, it just gets to be too much, and the big holes in our chests suddenly wake up and remind us they're there. It happens to all of us sometimes. I dunno who decided to call that kind of thing a 'heart attack', but I suspect Xigbar. It's the kind of thing he'd do."

"How do you make it go away?"

"You can't really make it go away; you have to wait until it goes away by itself. But I always thought it helped if you had company." Demyx nodded silently and leaned on Axel's shoulder. "It'll be okay soon. You always recovered faster than most of us."

Demyx whimpered a little. "It feels like it'll never be okay again, though."

"It always does," Axel whispered. "It's upsetting, I know. But it'll be over soon. Trust me." Demyx nodded again, wrapped his arms around Axel, and snuggled into his shoulder. Axel could almost feel his face turn red, but he couldn't help but smile.  _That's why I love little kids. They don't know enough not to trust yet._

* * *

Axel blinked. He hadn't even realized Demyx had gone to sleep, even though he was now snoring softly a few inches away from his ear, and the clock had mysteriously advanced an hour without him noticing. "You seem to sleep better on my shoulder than anywhere else," he murmured softly.

Demyx stirred a little. "Mmph. Your shoulder's comfy."

"I'm glad you like it, but my arm is numb. Feeling better?" Demyx nodded. "Good."

"All better now." Demyx smiled at up Axel. "Thanks."

"Well, if you didn't get better, I'd just have to tickle you..." Axel poked Demyx's ribs gently, and he giggled a little. "That would have fixed you, wouldn't it..." He tickled in earnest, until Demyx was shrieking with laughter. Axel was grinning and laughing right along with him. "Can't stay gloomy while you're being tickled, can you!"

"Whatever you two are doing in here, it sounds like tons of fun..."

Axel straightened up and looked around. "Oh, hi, Roxas...we're just having a tickle session..."

Roxas raised an eyebrow. "Right. Seems you've adjusted pretty well to the idea of keeping him like this." He looked pointedly at the still-giggling Demyx. "When I talked to you about it last night, you were wrecked."

"Rox -" Axel stood up and crossed over to where Roxas was standing, leaving Demyx sprawled on the bed panting and giggling fitfully. "Don't talk about it in here, okay? He's got an idea of what's up, he knows I don't like it, and if someone else isn't happy, he isn't happy. And I get the impression that he gets asthma attacks when he's upset. Because he's upset," he clarified.

"Well, I suppose it's a good idea to try and trigger as few of those as possible...though I'd think tickling him until he can hardly breathe anyway isn't the best way to do it."

Axel glanced back uncertainly. "I - didn't think about that..."

Roxas nodded. "Yeah, thinking ahead has never really been a strong point of yours..."

"Roxas, have you ever heard of tact? I was just trying to cheer up a sad little kid; that's all I was thinking about."

"You know, you could be more careful in the future..."

"What, you think I was trying to give him an attack?"

"No! What in Kingdom Hearts would give you that idea?!"

"Well, it's that or you think I'm an idiot."

Roxas shook his head in exasperation. "Some days, Axel."

Axel sighed; it sounded like a hiss. "So, why exactly did you come here to talk to the idiot?"

"I was wondering where you were. I pretty much only see you at mealtimes anymore, and then you choke down your food as fast as possible so you can get Demyx's food ready and get it back to him as soon as possible."

"Rox, he's a little kid! He can't be left unsupervised for too long!"

"What's he gonna do if left alone for fifteen minutes, set the curtains on fire? Choke himself by accident with his sitar strings? Drown in the damn bathtub?"

"Well, the first time I left him alone for that long, he had a damn asthma attack! Look, what the fuck's your issue, anyway? Wouldn't you rather be spending time with your witchy girlfriend anyway?" A mighty low blow, that, but Axel was pissed.

Roxas's face flushed with anger. "Hey, you dumbasses might think she's a witch, but she's not gonna try to skin me alive for getting within arm's reach, which is more than you can say about your new favorite bitch! You don't even have the balls to talk to her; the best you can do is try to knock everyone else down so you look better!"

Axel grabbed him by the collar, his other hand clenched into a fist. Roxas summoned his Keyblades to defend himself with. The two of them were five seconds from killing each other when they heard a soft gasping sound. Demyx, who'd been watching the whole thing, was wide-eyed with terror and sobbing uncontrollably.

Axel sighed heavily and released his death grip on Roxas. "Here's a compromise. We're both idiots."

Roxas dispelled his Keyblades, nodding wearily. "That sounds about right."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know it's serious when ROXAS starts swearing.


	8. Part 8

"Come on...it's not your fault...Rox and I just got mad at each other."

Demyx was still sobbing weakly. He'd already left a wet spot three inches across on Axel's shoulder, which was astonishing considering how fast dampness evaporated off his clothes. "Yes it is. You were fighting 'cause of me. I heard you."

Axel sighed heavily. "Demyx..."

"And now Roxas hates you, and it's all my fault," Demyx sobbed miserably. "I'm sorry."

"Demyx -" Demyx buried his face in Axel's shoulder, crying inconsolably. "Demyx, please. Listen to me. It's not your fault, got it memorized?" Axel didn't understand how someone so small could cry so much for so long. It must have something to do with being a water elementalist. "Demyx..." He raised the boy's chin gently, so they were looking straight at each other. "Trust me. It's not your fault." Tears kept flowing down Demyx's face. "What's it gonna take to make you stop crying? You're gonna run yourself dry if you keep it up like this."

Demyx sighed sadly and rested his chin on Axel's shoulder. "I just want everything to be okay."

"Boy, you don't want much, do you..." Axel had been alternately sitting and pacing the floor with the distraught child Nocturne; now his arms were almost ready to fall off. He lay down on the bed, with Demyx next to him. "Phew...I was getting a little tired of carrying you...if it makes you feel better, I don't think Roxas hates me. He's mad at me, sure, and he's got reason to be, but I really don't think he hates me." Demyx whimpered softly. Axel stroked his hair lightly. "I was being stupid, egging him on, I guess you might call it...my fault, not yours."

Demyx closed his eyes and sighed weakly. "I still feel so bad about it, though."

"You shouldn't." Axel gave him a hug. "Look, you've worn yourself out crying so much. You need some rest." He reached down and pulled Demyx's stuffed killer whale out from between the sheets. "Here, will this help?"

Demyx nodded and took the whale. "Thanks..." He snuggled up to Axel, apparently quite comfortable except for being upset. Axel might not have been quite so comfortable, since he was now prevented from moving, but he was getting used to it.

* * *

Click.

"Huh?" Axel blinked. Roxas was standing at the foot of the bed with a camera. Demyx was still snuggled up next to him, snoring softly into his ear. "The hell are you doing?" he asked quietly.

"Taking baby pictures. I figure you have no idea how adorable you are."

"Figure it's all his doing..." Axel looked over at Demyx. "Any adorableness in the room is all coming from him." Demyx mumbled in his sleep. "See, he agrees with me."

"Well, I figured it couldn't possibly be coming from you..."

"Gee, thanks. I'm so flattered." Axel blinked and glanced over at the little boy next to him. "He's drooling in my ear. Demyx, that's just icky, got it memorized?" Click. "Rox..."

"Well, you also want to preserve memories of things he'd probably rather forget..."

"Delayed-action revenge?" Demyx shifted slightly and opened his eyes. "Hello, shrimpy - tired of drooling in my ear, are you? You didn't used to drool in your sleep all the time! It's not funny, got it memorized?" That last was directed at Roxas as well.

"At least he doesn't wet the bed. You've got to admit, that would be worse."

Axel wiped saliva out of his ear. "Yeah, except now you've probably jinxed him. If he wets the bed tonight, I'm going to install him in your room so he'll come crawl in with you every night." Demyx was sitting up and looking at Roxas with trepidation. "Oh, and just to reassure him - Rox, you don't hate me, do you?"

"...No...I don't think so...should I? Is there something going on I don't know about?"

"Not except we started fighting in front of him and he got the impression that you hated me now and it was his fault."

Roxas leaned in closer to Demyx. "Demyx, if I ever start hating this red-headed idiot, it'll be his own fault, not yours, okay?"

Demyx looked over at Axel. "Axel is an idiot?"

Axel looked up at Roxas. "Way to corrupt a young mind. No, I'm not an idiot. I think. Which should help prove I'm not an idiot!" Demyx giggled, and Roxas snapped another picture. "You're worse than Zexion, aren't you?"

Demyx blinked. "Zexion isn't bad. He's just...kinda...different."

"If by 'different' you mean 'antisocial and frequently passively hostile'...but I meant with that camera of his." Demyx looked at the camera, as if he was seeing it for the first time, and grinned goofily into the lens. Roxas chuckled and took his portrait. "You're encouraging him."

Roxas stepped back into the bathroom and gestured for Axel to follow him. "I'm going to take your word for it, and assume that too much mention of the subject is going to make him upset and possibly risk an asthma attack..." he said softly. "You know he barely remembers anything from his previous life now...what if he doesn't remember anything about this when we get him back to normal?"

"You're assuming we ever do, though. Just going by how long we've been 'about to get our hearts back', he could be into his fifties by the time that actually happens. And not just by the calendar, physically."

"Well...it's Demyx. Demyx has always been kind of an oddball. I mean, if you didn't know, would you suspect he didn't have a heart?"

"Rox, I can tell, remember?"

"Well, if you couldn't. If you were just talking to him and trying to guess just by that whether he had a heart or not, what would you think?"

"...He's five years old. It's kind of hard to tell."

"...Your memory can't be that bad. Before, you doofus. Back when he was closer to twenty than two."

"I guess you have a point..." Axel glanced at the mirror and noticed Demyx was watching them intently. "Kingdom Hearts...I think he's reading our lips."

Roxas covered his face with his hands. "I forgot he could do that. I never thought of it."

"Well, if he still can, he probably remembers sign language too..." Axel turned back to Demyx.  **Hi, Demyx; how are you doing?**  he signed.

Demyx waved.  **I'm hungry. Can I have some ice cream?**  he signed back.

Axel turned to Roxas again. "Well, that's settled...freezer raid?"

Roxas shook his head.  **It's too close to dinnertime,**  he signed.  **You'll ruin your appetite.**

* * *

"I guess there's never been a five-year-old in the history of any world who could eat spaghetti neatly...hold still, wiggly; you must have more spaghetti on your face than in your stomach?" Demyx giggled as if Axel was tickling him instead of trying to wipe his face off. "Hold still, already! You're making even more of a mess! Roxas, camera down now or it dies in a fire!"

"But it's so funny to watch..." Roxas was giggling as much as Demyx, which was only encouraging the little Nocturne.

"Roxas, you are giggling like a little girl. I don't know whether this bothers you or not, but I find it just a tiny bit unnerving. Not to mention annoying." Axel finally gave up on cleaning Demyx's messy face with just a napkin. "Okay, Rox, your new mission is to disrobe Shrimpy here while I get some bathwater running. A napkin is just not gonna cut it. And before you say it -" he pointed at Demyx, who was apparently about to say it - "you're not a shrimpy, you're a mess!"

By the time Roxas entered the bathroom, half-leading and half-carrying Demyx, there was a little spaghetti on his face too. "Boy, do you need a bath."

Demyx promptly crawled into the bathtub, needing no encouragement. He sat up and grinned at Roxas. "I like baths." He slid under the water and looked cheerfully up at Axel and Roxas. Red lines like shallow gashes appeared between his ribs - gill slits.

Axel reached down and started scrubbing at his face with a washcloth. "Maybe that'll get the sauce off his face. If it works, I'll lend it to you. Oh, and, um...put the camera away for its own good. Unless it's waterproof." Roxas didn't even have time to ask why before Axel was suddenly soaked. Demyx stuck his head out of the water and giggled. Axel wiped water out of his face with an air of resignation. "...I shouldn't have to explain why."

"Axel's all wet now." Demyx grinned at his handiwork before collecting a ball of water and spinning it out into a long thread that wound its way around the entire bathroom. He giggled excitedly.

Axel got himself a palmful of shampoo and started working it into Demyx's hair. Demyx squeaked, and the thread of water collapsed and splashed to the floor, soaking the entire bathroom. "...I was hoping you wouldn't do that."

"Don't get any shampoo in my eyes!" Demyx begged nervously.

"I won't, unless you squirm too much." Demyx held carefully still while Axel washed his hair. "There we go..." Axel grabbed Roxas by the arm and pulled him back against the wall. A large ball of water appeared over Demyx's head and hovered there for a few moments, then splashed, washing all the shampoo out at once and flooding the bathroom at the same time. Demyx giggled.

Roxas wiped water out of his eyes. "Cute. Very cute."

* * *

Axel wasn't sure if it was worth his while anymore to put Demyx in his own bed; he always ended up in Axel's. This time, he didn't even wait until Axel was really asleep before crawling in. "Hi, Demyx...you're here early."

Demyx didn't try to snuggle under the covers like he usually did; he just sat on the bed, hugging his stuffed whale and clutching his inhaler. "Axel, do you know how I can make myself bigger?"

"Aw, is that still eating you?" Axel gave him a reassuring hug. "Don't worry about that for now. We'll find some good way to get you back to normal soon enough. If I were you, I'd take some time to enjoy my second childhood."

"Did you find a bad way?"

Axel sighed. "Well...it's not a bad way, it's just a really hard way. You'll go back to normal when you get your heart back."

"Oh." Demyx thought for a while. "How can I get my heart back?"

"Well, once Kingdom Hearts is complete, we'll all get our hearts back."

Demyx ran over to the window and peered out. "I can't see it."

"Well, you can't always see it from my window."

Demyx frowned. "But I wanna see it..."

Axel took a deep breath. "Okay...go get your robe." Axel pulled his robe and boots on over his pajamas before helping Demyx with his. "I hope I'm not going to get in trouble for this..." He took Demyx's hand and teleported to the balcony that was normally the Superior's territory, because it always had an excellent view of Kingdom Hearts. Axel knelt next to the little Nocturne and pointed up at the heart-shaped moon. "See it?"

Demyx nodded, awestruck. "Cool...but why's it all dark in the middle?"

"That's because it's not finished yet. When it's finished, we'll all get our hearts back."

"All of us?"

Axel nodded. "All of us. Even little old you. That's why we're all here working together - to get our hearts back."

"And when I get my heart, I'll get bigger?"

"Yeah, you'll go right back to normal."

"Good." Demyx gave Axel a hug, and Axel took the opportunity to pick him up. "I hope I get my heart back soon."

Yeah, right, Axel thought, but he nodded. "All right, we'd better split before...uh, hi, Superior, I was just..."

"Attempting to explain the concept of Kingdom Hearts to a young child?" Xemnas nodded at Demyx, who was staring at him with mixed awe and nervousness. "An admirable effort on your part; considering the attention you're accustomed to devoting to meetings, I would have expected your understanding to be scarcely more than his."

Axel swallowed hard. "Well...um...sorry to intrude, sir..."

"It's entirely understandable that, when suddenly reduced to such a juvenile state and having only poor memories of his life, Nine would naturally be curious about our condition...even if he can no longer fully grasp the underlying concepts..." Axel figured Demyx understood one word in three of that, but Xemnas's eyes kept being drawn to Kingdom Hearts - he probably wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to them.

"Um...Superior...you're not..."

Xemnas waved distantly, still gazing at the heart-shaped moon. "You two may go, Eight."

"O...kay..." Axel teleported himself and Demyx back to his own room, feeling like he'd just dodged a bullet. "That was close...good thing Xemnas seemed to be in a good mood...here, let me help you with that." He set Demyx down on the bed and unzipped his robe for him. "Funny, I don't think he could have cared less how much you'd shrunk...either he's a very cool customer or he's insane." Demyx gasped and giggled. Axel took the opportunity to tickle him. "Knowing him, I'd believe either one. All right, shrimpy, bedtime for both of us..." He suddenly realized something. "You know, this is the first day you haven't had an attack all day. That's great."

Demyx grinned and tried to bite Axel's fingers playfully. "Good. Asthma is scary."

"I know; it's even scary for me, and I'm not the one who has it...now if you'll quit trying to be a shark and bite me and go back to being a Demyx, we can get some sleep."


	9. Part 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the one where the death happens.

"Wake up, Axel."

Axel blinked, squinted, tried to yawn, and realized his breathing was being restricted by the heavy weight on his chest. "Demyx, get off me..." Demyx rolled off of Axel's chest and plopped onto the floor, taking Axel's sheets and blankets with him. "Huh? Where'd you go?"

Demyx giggled and poked his head over the side of the bed. "I'm down here, silly."

Axel looked over at him. "Oh, there you are. Can I have my blankets back?"

Demyx shook his head and wrapped himself in a blanket cocoon. "Mine now."

"But I need those blankets..." Axel scratched his head in mock bewilderment. "Hmm. I can't reach your ribs to tickle them." He pretended to think hard. "Hey, I know what I'll do!" He reached down and grabbed Demyx's ankles. "I think I'll tickle your feet!"

Demyx giggled and squealed uncontrollably, rolling around until the blankets started coming loose. "Ax - Axel - hee hee! Stop it!"

Axel did stop, and while Demyx was still recovering from his giggling fit, he recovered the blankets. "All right, now that's settled...I'm gonna go shower and get us some breakfast."

"I want a muffin. If there are muffins, can you bring me one?"

Axel grinned at Demyx's innocent smile. "If Roxas and Luxord don't eat them all, sure."

"Good. I like the blueberry ones."

"Oh, great, that's Roxas's favorite too..."

* * *

"Axel, is there a good reason you just snatched the muffin out of my hand?" Roxas's tone and expression suggested Axel had better have an excellent reason.

"Demyx specifically asked for a blueberry muffin." Axel quickly hid the muffin in question in his lap, out of reach.

"So your response is to steal the one I was about to eat?" Roxas groused, as he grabbed another muffin out of the basket.

"I can't reach the basket."

"See, if you'd just mentioned that earlier, I could have moved it over to where you could reach it, but no, you had to just snitch the muffin I'd already claimed..."

"It was handy..."

"Axel?"

"What?"

"Don't make me start a food fight." Axel reached for Roxas's second muffin, with the intent of doing just that, but Roxas kept it out of reach. "Ax...I swear, hanging around Demyx has robbed you of your own maturity."

"Maybe so, but I've also discovered life can be a little more fun when you don't let maturity get in the way too much."

"You're a bad example. You should lose custody of him."

"And who would you give him to? Larxene?" The Savage Nymph glanced over and snorted, eyeing Axel suspiciously. "Or maybe Xigbar, in thanks for running his mouth off..."

"It would have been just perfect if that sentence had been punctuated by the sound of someone taking the safety off."

* * *

"And, finally, per your request..." Axel produced the hotly contested baked treat with a flourish. "A blueberry muffin."

Demyx grinned eagerly and grabbed it, eating it more neatly than he had the spaghetti. "Thanksh, Asshel."

"Don't talk with your mouth full." Axel tried not to laugh as Demyx devoured the cupcake and licked his face and fingers clean. "You enjoyed that, didn't you."

Demyx nodded eagerly. "Yup." Then he looked out the window. "It's raining," he announced.

Axel turned around and looked for himself. "Well, so it is."

"I wanna go play in the rain."

"And I assume that means you want me to take you outside?" Demyx nodded eagerly. Axel sighed. "Demyx, you know I hate rain..."

Demyx pouted. "Aww. But I like it, and I don't get to play in it very much."

"Demyx..."

"Just this once? Please?"

Those pleading aqua eyes were too much to resist. "All right...I'll take you outside. But just for a few minutes."

Demyx cheered. "Yay!" Axel went searching for an umbrella in his room. Demyx, being Demyx, would neither need nor want an umbrella. "Hurry up, slowpoke!"

"I'm not a slowpoke, I'm cautious...come on, outside." Axel summoned a portal out to the street. Moments later, he was standing under a protected overhang while Demyx danced and splashed gleefully. "Careful you don't wander away," he said, not in a hurry to chase Demyx all through the city, in the rain.

Demyx did a neat little pirouette, directly under a rainspout. It hadn't taken him long to get soaked to the bone. "Come dance with me, Axel!"

Axel shook his head. "I don't like getting wet...and I don't want to have to chase you all over the city, got it memorized?"

Demyx ignored him completely, dancing to a tune only he could hear. Soon, he danced around a corner and disappeared.

"Dammit..." Axel muttered, leaving the shelter of the overhang in pursuit. "I told you not to wander away," he said as he stepped around the corner. Demyx wasn't there.

_Well, shit._

"Demyx?" Axel called. "Where'd you get to?" No response. "Demyx? Come on, seriously. Get back here." Still nothing. "Demyx, I'm getting a little annoyed..." The only sound was the faint hiss of steam as the rain evaporated off his robes. "Demyx!" There was no answer.

Axel had left annoyed behind and was getting worried. He summoned a small flame, continually feeding power into it so the rain wouldn't put it out. "Demyx, can you hear me?" The flame brightened, and Axel used it to light his way as he searched. "Come on, you can't be too far away, you're not that fast...Demyx!" He lit up an eight-foot drop that in a normal city would have led to a loading dock. "Kingdom Hearts..."

Axel teleported himself to the bottom. Demyx lay there motionless, with his eyes closed; they flickered open when Axel knelt to touch his face. "Axel, I can't move," he whispered.

 _Dear, sweet Kingdom Hearts...he's broken his neck._  Axel knew it was a stupid idea to pick him up, but he did anyway; the ground was filthy down there and Demyx didn't need to spend any more time on it than he already had. "I told you not to wander away..." he whispered.  _I should never have let him come out here...Please, Demyx, don't go..._

"I know...I was following the music..." Demyx's eyelids wavered as Axel gently brushed a strand of hair out of his face.

"Following the music...?"  _Don't go, Demyx...it can't be over already...I don't want to never wake up to sitar music again...  
_

"Can't you hear it?" Axel shook his head. "It's so pretty..."

Axel listened closely to the rain, ignoring how it was evaporating off his face as little puffs of steam - just like tears. "I can't hear anything," he whispered, giving Demyx a little kiss on the cheek.  _This wasn't supposed to happen...you were supposed to find your heart and go back to normal - not just normal age and size, but really_ normal...

"That's too bad." Demyx frowned a little. "I thought...maybe...it'd make me bigger again..."

"Why would you think that?"  _Don't go...!_

"'Cause...the music...it's...my...heart..." Demyx smiled faintly, closed his eyes, and sighed.

"Your heart?" Axel looked down at Demyx and realized that sigh had been his last breath. The cold, bleak World that Never Was had never been colder or bleaker.

_Demyx...you're gone._

_486._

_Kingdom Hearts..._

_487._

_Why Demyx?_

_488._

_He didn't..._

_489._

_Deserve this._

_490._

_If I could..._

_491._

_I would have..._

_492._

_Died for him..._

_493._

_But it's too late._

_494._

_He's gone._

_495._

Tears and rain rolled down Axel's face and vaporized as he watched the child Demyx slowly fade away in his arms.

_496._

Fingers and toes...

_497._

Hands and feet...

_498._

Legs and arms...

_499._

Head and torso...

_500._

He was gone.

"Holy shit."

Axel spun around so fast he nearly knocked himself over. Demyx - nineteen-year-old, pale-skinned, non-asthmatic, presumably deaf-as-a-post Demyx - was sitting on the edge of the concrete, rubbing his head as if he had a massive headache.  **Axel...what am I doing here?**  he signed.  **What happened? And where are my hearing aids?**

* * *

"Axel...what the hell's going on?"

Axel blinked. He was in his own room, lying on his bed. Demyx was sitting next to him, fully grown and sporting hearing aids. For one brief moment, he wondered if the past five days were nothing but a bizarre dream. Then he saw the inhaler Demyx was turning over and over in his hands, and the stuffed killer whale in his lap. "...Are you for real?"

"As real as any of us, I guess...why?"

"Take your shirt off. I wanna see your shoulder."

Demyx rolled his eyes, but peeled his robe off and removed his shirt far enough to expose his right shoulderblade and a jagged white line across it - a scar left over from a practice fight gone memorably wrong. "Scar's still there, isn't it."

Axel nodded warily as Demyx replaced his clothing. "Okay, you're real."

"Real enough to haul you back here after you  _passed out at the sight of me._ "

Axel groaned. "Well, if I passed out at the sight of you, it's because you'd died in my arms of a broken neck fifteen seconds earlier."

Demyx spent a lot longer than fifteen seconds staring at him in disbelief. "...You must have hit your head pretty hard. Or you're drunk."

Axel didn't even bother to respond to that. He just nodded at the inhaler. "What's that and where'd you get it?"

Demyx shook his head in bewilderment. "It's a fast-acting inhaler...used in case of an asthma attack. My Other had asthma - he used to carry one of these around - but I never needed one. I just...found it in my pocket. I don't know where it came from."

Axel nodded understandingly. "Vexen gave it to you four days ago."

"...Why? And how do you know?"

"I was there. Now before I continue, I'd like to establish that I'm not drunk, I didn't hit my head, my blood sugar isn't spiraling out of control in either direction, I'm not otherwise insane, and I have several reliable witnesses. And you were five years old at the time."

That went over about as well as he'd expected. "... _What?!_ "

"You were a very cute kid. Real sweet. Very happy and affectionate - very huggy. The asthma part was pretty scary, though."

Demyx shook his head, staring at the inhaler. "If it weren't for this, I'd think I'd just gotten drunk and blacked out and you were trying to fill in the blank with a bunch of crap. But...I don't think I ever told you before that my Other had asthma. And...Benji...the whale...that's just not the sort of thing you share with anyone. Even if I talked too much under the influence, I don't think you'd go out and buy props just to get me to believe a bunch of bullshit."

"Nope. Vexen gave you that inhaler after your first attack. I don't know where the whale come from. It just - showed up out of nowhere when you randomly turned into a little boy."

"Okay, well, I'm sure you're not bullshitting me, but only the whale and the inhaler are convincing me you might not have just lost your final marble."

"Well, ask Zexion. Ask Vexen. Ask Roxas. Hell, Roxas has pictures."

"...You know what? I think I will." Demyx portaled out of the room, taking the inhaler and stuffed whale as evidence and leaving a deeply confused Axel.

_How the hell did that happen?! I thought it only wore off after five hundred heartbeats, and since I really don't think he has a heart now, I really don't think he had a heart at the time...maybe falling and breaking his neck short-circuited something...made the enchantment wear off or whatever..._

_But...the last think he said before he - died - was "The music...it's my heart"...maybe...it really is his heart...in a way..._

_Okay, that's ridiculous. No, that's too stupid to even qualify as ridiculous. That's fuckin'_  insane.

Demyx teleported back into the room, followed by a very pale and stunned-looking Roxas. Demyx himself looked like he'd been hit with a brick. "This is getting a little harder to disbelieve."

"I thought you said the only way he'd change back was to get his heart back!" Roxas said.

"Well...yeah...I...thought so...but..." Axel gulped. "The last thing he did before changing back was fall down and break his neck. Maybe that did something."

Roxas staggered. "What?!"

"I'm serious! He died in my arms! I was standing there, holding him, watching him fade, and a few seconds later, he's sitting there full-size!"

"Axel...do you have  _any_  idea how disturbing it is listening to you talking about me dying?"

"Well, sorry, but it's kinda true!"

"If I died, what the hell am I doing here?!"

Axel shook his head. "I wanna know too, but I think if I think about it too much, I'm gonna have a stroke. I might have a stroke anyway."

Demyx sat down, looking like he had the worst headache ever imagined. "I might beat you to it...Rox, what was that you said about me getting my heart back?"

Roxas took a deep breath. "Well...this is secondhand from Zexion by way of Axel, but...supposedly the...whatever enchantment or something you were under wore off by itself after five hundred heartbeats, meaning that for it to ever wear off of you, you'd need to get your heart back first. I'm glad we didn't have that long to wait, but I'm just as confused as you two. Even more so, because I have no clear idea what either of you are talking about."

Just going by his expression, Demyx hadn't heard those last two sentences. He was lost in his own thoughts. "Five hundred heartbeats," he repeated softly. Then he stood up and stared out the window at the rain, gently tapping his fingers against the windowsill to a beat only he could hear. If you paid attention, it sounded almost like a heartbeat.

Axel suddenly got the impression that Demyx knew a hell of a lot more about what happened than he was letting on. "Aspirin...I need aspirin..."


End file.
